Manchester United boss, Jose Mourinho confirmed after his team's 2-2 draw at Stoke on Saturday that new signing, Victor Lindelof and Chris Smalling would replace suspended duo Eric Bailly and Phil Jones at Old Trafford on Tuesday in their Champions League opener against Basel, reports the Manchester Evening News.
Lindelof's last appearance for United was over a month ago in the Super Cup defeat to Real Madrid.
England defender Phil Jones who has become a mainstay in Mourinho's defence this term had a poor outing against Stoke. And his Boss was characteristically critical of his performance.
"It is not the moment to speak, he knows the mistake," Mourinho said of Jones' poor performance at Stoke. "He doesn't need me to go in to speak with him about it, so no problem.
"Mistakes are part of the game, he's playing well for us, he's probably tired after two consequent matches with the national team but he cannot play Tuesday so it is good that he gets his rest and opportunity for Lindelof and Smalling to play a Champions League match."
Stoke manager Mark Hughes is unbeaten in his last four games against Mourinho, who felt the Potters played for a draw.
"I'm not satisfied with a point because we were the team closer to winning.
It is a result I accept, though," he added. "One team tried to win, one team tried to get the point but they fought hard to get that point - they defended well, they counter-attacked and in set-pieces they are powerful.
"That was a great save by David de Gea - the only one he did, because in the first half there was only a couple of slow shots by Xherdan Shaqiri.
"But we couldn't protect the corner and he was punished, we were punished."
No comments:
Post a Comment