Jose
Mourinho has explained why he has decided to leave Henrikh Mkhitaryan out of
his Manchester United squad for recent matches, according to the club’s
official website.
The Armenian has not been involved in the
matchday squad in seven of the last eight games and last featured as a
substitute in United’s 1-0 win over Brighton on 25 November.
Mourinho was asked about Mkhitaryan’s
absence in his post-match press conference following the Reds’ 1-0 victory over
Bournemouth at Old Trafford on Wednesday night.
The boss outlined that his plethora of
options in midfield and attacking positions means that there is competition for
every place in the starting line-up and on the bench.
He said: “I can only have six [outfield]
players on the bench and I try to have some balance on the bench – I had two
defenders and [Daley] Blind who can play in different areas. I had Ashley Young
to cover me all of the wing and the wing-back position.
“I had [Ander] Herrera as a midfield
player, Zlatan [Ibrahimovic] as a striker and Marcus [Rashford] as a second
striker and winger. I played [Anthony] Martial, [Juan] Mata and [Jesse] Lingard
in the team. To have Micki means that I don’t have one of them and, in this
moment, I believe the other ones they deserve [the chance to play].
0 Comments