{"id":260095,"date":"2016-10-20T14:22:09","date_gmt":"2016-10-20T14:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=260095"},"modified":"2016-10-20T14:22:09","modified_gmt":"2016-10-20T14:22:09","slug":"mourinho-to-field-strong-man-utd-team-in-difficult-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=260095","title":{"rendered":"Mourinho to field ‘strong’ Man Utd team in ‘difficult week’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho says he will field a “strong” side as a “difficult week” continues with a Europa League match against Fenerbahce.<\/p>\n

Thursday’s Group A fixture is United’s second of three matches in six days.<\/p>\n

They drew 0-0 at Liverpool on Monday,<\/a> and play Mourinho’s old team Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.<\/p>\n

“It’s a very difficult week for us. Monday, Thursday, Sunday; Liverpool, Fenerbahce, Chelsea. It’s a special week. We have to be ready,” he said.<\/p>\n

The Portuguese would not be drawn on his line-up – or whether forward Wayne Rooney would start the 20:05 BST kick-off at Old Trafford.<\/p>\n

The England captain, 30, has been a substitute for United’s past four matches.<\/p>\n

“I don’t want to give you the team,” said Mourinho. “Sometimes I do, but this time, no.<\/p>\n

“Wayne is working well, he is positive. We count on him – to start or to be on the bench.<\/p>\n

“If we play with a team that is not good and strong, we won’t have a chance. We will play a really good team knowing two days later we have to play again.”<\/p>\n

Mourinho did confirm attacking midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan is available after recovering from a thigh injury that has kept him out since mid-September.<\/p>\n

Van Persie on his Old Trafford return<\/h3>\n

Thursday’s game will pit United against their former striker Robin van Persie.<\/p>\n

The Dutchman, now 33, was signed from Arsenal in 2012 by Sir Alex Ferguson, but the Scot retired at the end of Van Persie’s first season.<\/p>\n

The former Arsenal forward was sold to Fenerbahce by Louis van Gaal in 2015.<\/p>\n

Asked if he thought he would still be at United had Ferguson stayed, Van Persie said: “When I signed that was the idea, that Sir Alex would stay on for a few more years.<\/p>\n

“What happened, happened. I don’t think you have to make it bigger than it is. You shake hands and move on to the next chapter.”<\/p>\n

Fenerbahce’s arrival in Manchester was delayed when the plane carrying the team was forced to make an emergency landing<\/a> after it was hit by a bird.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho says he will field a “strong” side as a “difficult week” continues with a Europa League match against Fenerbahce. Thursday’s Group A fixture is United’s second of three matches in six days. They drew 0-0 at Liverpool on Monday, and play Mourinho’s old team Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":260096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[142],"tags":[564,1753,102,104,937],"class_list":["post-260095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-citi-sports","tag-epl","tag-jose-mourinho","tag-manchester-united","tag-premier-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=260095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/260096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=260095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=260095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=260095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}