José Mourinho has confirmed Marcus Rashford will make his first club start of the season at Feyenoord in the Europa League on Thursday after giving another glimpse of what the Manchester United manager described as the 18-year-old's "brilliant future" in the second half of Saturday's derby defeat at Old Trafford.
"For me the next big game is against Feyenoord and the next game [Rashford] is going to play," Mourinho said, coming close, but not that close to admitting he may have erred with his starting line-up in the 2-1 defeat by Manchester City.
“I trust him completely. I know his future will be absolutely brilliant. He is mainly a number nine – if you want to play him in different positions, we need to work him, we need to improve him, but his big personality is there.
“Normally, people look to the football talent but personality at his level is very important and he was showing that last season – he was showing that immediately.”
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been prolific if a little stodgy in his movement and – Mourinho suggested he may choose to play both strikers through the centre in future.
"Wide man or we play with both, which we can do perfectly like we did against Hull. I felt City had the fragility on the sides and the kid could give us in the second half on the sides what we didn't get with Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Jesse Lingard in the first half.
Very direct
“Rashford did that for us and because we were playing with Ander Herrera behind
Marouane Fellaini
and
Paul Pogba
, I knew Fellaini and Pogba were going to be in the box all the time so I thought the game was going to be very direct like it was. So I think we read the game really well. The kid gave us what we had needed in the first half.”
Antonio Conte has claimed opposing defenders are targeting Diego Costa and seeking to provoke the Spain forward, with the Chelsea manager praising his player’s refusal to react in the fractious draw at Swansea City yesterday.
Five appearances
Costa took his season’s tally to six goals in five appearances for club and country but his two here were not enough to prevent Conte shedding his first points as manager.
Chelsea were further unnerved by the sight of the captain, John Terry, departing on crutches after sustaining an ankle injury in stoppage time. That will render him a major doubt for Friday’s visit of Liverpool to Stamford Bridge and will potentially hand David Luiz his second debut for the club.
Yet, while Terry’s fitness will be a concern, it was Costa who dominated this occasion. A trio of Swansea players were booked for fouls on the forward, with Jordi Amat having set the tone two minutes in with an elbow to the small of the back that went unpunished. “The defenders know him and, sometimes, try to provoke him,” said Conte. Guardian Service
