Jose Mourinho can win the first major silverware of his Manchester United reign in Sunday\u2019s League Cup final against Southampton and Wayne Rooney might be the man to help him do it.<\/p>\n
Mourinho will become the first United manager to win a top prize in his maiden season at Old Trafford if his team triumph at Wembley.<\/p>\n
Not even United legends Alex Ferguson and Matt Busby took one of the major trophies back to Manchester in their first season, but Mourinho insists the prospect of giving his team something to celebrate is more important than personal plaudits.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think when you have a taste of good things, you want to repeat,\u201d the Portuguese said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think when you get used to winning, when you don\u2019t win, you miss it.\u201d<\/p>\n
United won the last of their four League Cups in 2010 and the club has lifted only one major trophy \u2014 the FA Cup under Mourinho\u2019s predecessor Louis van Gaal last season \u2014 since Ferguson\u2019s retirement in 2013.<\/p>\n
Southampton famously upset the odds against United by winning the 1976 FA Cup for the only major trophy in their history and Mourinho has warned his players a similar outcome will be on the cards unless the current crop match the desire of Claude Puel\u2019s men.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they want it more than us, they win,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we have to be sure that they don\u2019t want it more than us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I think the best team on the pitch will win and it will not depend on motivations because I don\u2019t think that they are more motivated than us,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Mourinho has a major selection decision to make as he considers whether to hand Rooney a rare start, just days after the striker said he would remain at Old Trafford amid interest from Chinese Super League clubs.<\/p>\n
Rooney could feature because Henrikh Mkhitaryan is sidelined with a hamstring injury and Mourinho said: \u201cA final is a special match and he is an option for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Puel meanwhile is convinced his patched-up defence can cope with red-hot United forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who has taken over the mantle from Rooney.<\/p>\n
Saints, who knocked out Arsenal and Liverpool en route to Wembley, are without key defender Virgil van Dijk and teenager Jack Stephens is set to be handed the job of shackling United\u2019s superstar.<\/p>\n
\u201cIbrahimovic can do a fantastic job. He is clinical, very efficient and he gives a good authority to the team. He is very self-confident,\u201d Puel said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll see if Jack starts this game. But for me of course I\u2019m confident with the player, with the squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was big attention from Jack and all these young players. They stay calm and just focus about what they can have to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the players can play in my team against Ibrahimovic. They know him now. We will give a good answer.\u201d<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jose Mourinho can win the first major silverware of his Manchester United reign in Sunday\u2019s League Cup final against Southampton and Wayne Rooney might be the man to help him do it. Mourinho will become the first United manager to win a top prize in his maiden season at Old Trafford if his team triumph […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"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":[983,4452],"class_list":["post-297329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football","tag-mourinho","tag-wembley-showdown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297329","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\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=297329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297329\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=297329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=297329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=297329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}