Man Utd Team News Update: Mourinho Confirms He’ll Make Changes vs Tottenham

Manchester United will look for a win to keep alive their fading hopes of finishing in the top four when they take on Tottenham at White Hart Lane on Sunday afternoon.

Ahead of the game, Jose Mourinho has been speaking to the media at his pre-match press conference and he’s given ManUtd.com a team news update.

The United boss has no fresh injury concerns to deal with following Thursday night’s Europa League clash with Celta Vigo but Mourinho has suggested he’ll freshen up his starting eleven this weekend.

Last night’s 2-1 aggregate victory over Celta Vigo has booked United’s place in the final of the Europa League and with the Red Devils currently sitting sixth in the Premier League, Mourinho has understandably made the final against Ajax his priority.

The Portuguese coach has already confirmed he plans to make a lot of changes for United’s final league game against Crystal Palace which comes just days before the Europa League final and Mourinho has now confirmed he’ll approach the games against Spurs and Southampton in the same way.

When asked about making changes against Spurs, Mourinho told the clubs website:

“I approach these games the same. I have to give some minutes to everyone because we only have 15 players. We don’t have more. We only have 15 so I have to play them but I have to play them in a mixed way and by periods.

“I don’t have another solution. In the Premier League, we can only finish fifth or sixth. I don’t think we can finish seventh or we can finish fourth so it’s fifth or sixth and we can win a trophy. By winning that trophy, we can play in the Champions League next season so that’s the game but, obviously, like we did against Arsenal, we didn’t throw the match away.

“We played and we tried to win. We gave a difficult match to our opponents and had chances to get a different result. It’s what we are going to do. We are not going say matches are not important – they are important. But we have one that is more important than others. The match on Sunday is important for us too.”

Mourinho has confirmed that Sergio Romero will start in the Europa League final having played in the previous rounds of the competition so David De Gea is set to come back in between the sticks this weekend.

Eric Bailly is also expected to start against Spurs as he’ll be suspended for the final against Ajax following his sending off last night. Mourinho continued:

“I don’t know about it [the incident against Celta Vigo]. I didn’t see it. I don’t want to see it now, maybe tomorrow, but even if it was unfair, I don’t think the UEFA rules will allow any chance of an appeal. So I don’t think he plays in the final. If he doesn’t play in the final, he has to play the remaining matches in the Premier League and give rest to some of the others.”

So it seems United will rotate heavily again this weekend and we should see the likes of Antonio Valencia, Daley Blind, Paul Pogba, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Marcus Rashford rested.

Marouane Fellaini will serve the final of his three-game domestic ban but Juan Mata, Wayne Rooney, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Anthony Martial, Michael Carrick and Axel Tuanzebe could get recalls against Tottenham.

However, United still have plenty of injury problems as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Luke Shaw, Ashley Young, Marcos Rojo and Timothy Fosu-Mensah remain on the sidelines.

United head in to the weekend action sitting sixth in the table and four points off the top four with three games remaining so it’s easy to see why Mourinho feels winning the Europa League is United’s best chance of qualifying for the Champions League.

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