The Changes I Made Worked Well

 

Jose Mourinho has revealed his desire to introduce more pace to Manchester United’s attack was the reason behind his decision to drop captain Wayne Rooney for the 4-1 victory over Leicester on Saturday.


Rooney was omitted from the starting XI for the visit of the Premier League champions to Old Trafford, with Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard and Juan Mata preferred in an attacking three behind lone frontman Zlatan Ibrahimovic. United, who came into the match on the back of three successive defeats, responded by firing four first-half goals past Leicester, with Chris Smalling, Mata, Rashford and Paul Pogba on target.

Rooney played the final seven minutes of the match after replacing Rashford and Mourinho insisted in the aftermath of victory that the England forward was still a big player for United. He said “When our main striker is Zlatan, we need fast people surrounding him. If he is on the pitch or at home, he is my captain. But we thought against a team like Leicester, the best solution for us was to play with the two fast kids and Mata in a position where he can interact with them. It did well for us. It was a good performance, the intensity of our pressure, our counter-attacks, the way we reached when we lost the ball. The young kids were fast and pressing and attacking spaces. Zlatan played very well in organisation of the attack.”