Jose patches up United

> Mourinho rallying up Red Devils for Rostov reunion

JOSE MOURINHO hopes Manchester United’s players will shrug off the effects of the stormy FA Cup loss to Chelsea when they resume Europa League hostilities with a depleted Rostov on Friday (4.05am Malaysian time).

Ander Herrera’s 35th-minute dismissal in Monday’s FA Cup quarterfinal obliged United to toil with 10 men for an hour as they succumbed to a sapping 1-0 defeat at the hands of Mourinho’s former club.

United have the upper hand against Rostov, having netted an away goal in a 1-1 draw in last week’s last-16 first leg in Russia, but their heavy schedule means freshness remains a concern.

“We have a very important match on Thursday and I want to rest a little bit to try to prepare the team as best we can,” United manager Mourinho told reporters at Stamford Bridge. “That’s the most important thing now.” Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s suspension and injuries to Wayne Rooney and Anthony Martial meant Marcus Rashford had to play as a lone striker at Chelsea despite struggling with illness.

But while it is unclear whether Rooney or Martial will feature on Friday, Ibrahimovic and Herrera will both be at Mourinho’s disposal as their suspensions only apply to domestic matches.

Centreback Eric Bailly is also available again after missing the first leg through suspension.

With United’s FA Cup quest over, the Europa League is the only piece of silverware Mourinho’s side can hope to add to the League Cup they won with a 3-2 victory over Southampton last month.

Aleksandr Bukharov’s second-half equaliser saved Rostov from defeat last Thursday on a tricky pitch that left Mourinho fuming, but Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s 35th-minute opener meant United were content to return to England with a draw.

“They came back to 1-1 and then you can do two things: you can attack or you can be a bit smarter and know there’s a second leg. We chose the second option,” said United defender Daley Blind.

“We didn’t underestimate them and we know what they’re capable of in the home game.

“I’m sure we’ll play on a better pitch, in better conditions, with all the crowd behind us. We have to finish it at home.”

While the tie appears to remain in the balance, United’s lofty reputation and Rostov’s own selection problems have prompted visiting manager Ivan Daniliants to adopt a cautious stance.

“I expect a very difficult return match,” he said.

“We’re going to Manchester hoping to produce a miracle, which sometimes happen in football. Unfortunately, we will be without a set of first-team players there.”

Rostov captain Aleksandr Katskan and Belarusian winger Timofei Kalachev are both suspended after being booked in the first leg, while fullback Vladimir Granat sustained a fractured collarbone.

First-choice goalkeeper Soslan Dzhanaev has only recently returned from injury and is not expected to play at Old Trafford.

Elsewhere, Lyon will look to close out victory away to Roma after an eye-catching 4-2 win last week in which Nabil Fekir and Alexandre Lacazette scored a pair of superb late goals.

“We’ll need to have the same spirit as in the first match,” Lyon goalkeeper Anthony Lopes told AFP.

“Given our strength in attack, I think we’ll need to score in order to qualify.”

It is all-square in the all-German clash between Borussia Moenchengladbach and Schalke, who drew 1-1 in Gelsenkirchen in their first meeting.

Dutch giants Ajax will attempt to overcome a 2-1 deficit at home to Copenhagen, while Genk’s 5-2 win at Belgian compatriots Gent means they are already within touching distance of the last eight. – AFP THERE could have been a very big Marcus Rashford moment at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday and though the teenager fashioned it – turning Gary Cahill inside out as he ran at him at pace – he could not finish it.

It was when Thibaut Courtois had stretched out a leg to repel Manchester United’s outstanding goalscoring opportunity that you were left to reflect on what the burden of expectation has brought to the player. He would have buried the chance in his breakthrough season, last year. This time, he could not write his name across the west London sky.

The unthinking ability to finish chances like that is what comes with youth. Fearlessness, is what Michael Owen has described it as. “When I was 18 I feared nothing,” Owen said last year.

“I just did it. It didn’t matter who I was playing against. I had an unshakable self-belief. Nothing bothered me. The prospect of scoring against Argentina at the World Cup? It felt natural.”

Later in his career, Owen did what you or I would do in his position. He’d look at the team sheet of the team he was up against, know that if he was up against Rio Ferdinand or John Terry he might have a problem on his hands, so would target “the other centre half, maybe play on him instead, because he wasn’t as strong. You lose that air of fearlessness.”

Rashford has not lost that capacity, though his performance in United’s FA Cup defeat to Antonio Conte’s side revealed that having ice in your veins is not enough when other sides have cottoned on to your threat.

There are no secrets in the white heat of elite British football and while Rashford’s whippy pace and unexpected movement was once enough, he is a marked man now.

Rashford, frankly, lacked the physique to take on Cahill and David Luiz to any meaningful effect.

He supplied the opening period’s half chance on Monday – levelling for Henrikh Mkhitaryan to fire a low shot wide of the right hand post – yet he seems to be in the same place that Sir Alex Ferguson found Danny Welbeck before sending him on loan to Sunderland in 2010. That is to say: needing to build up some physical presence to go with the pace. Owen was indestructible at Liverpool, in those years before muscular trouble so cruelly cut him down.

Jose Mourinho seems to feel that the player he calls ‘The Kid’ has what it takes. Though the 19-year-old has appeared from the bench more than starting Premier League this season and only overtook his 2015/16 tally of first team starts with his appearance against Chelsea, the manager has been more fulsome in his praise than he can often be with teenagers. He doesn’t seem to feel there is a need to ‘test’ him that he often shows.

“The second season was always going to be a difficult one,” Mourinho said of Rashford this week.

“I think the third season is going to be the good one again. The third season is one with more maturity, he can build on his experiences so I am sure the third season will be better than the second.

“The second season is the difficult one. It’s the pressure, it’s the people that knows him, it’s the expectation.”

That’s not to say that Mourinho did not turn the screw on the player in the hours ticking down to Monday night.

“It’s his decision. He knows he’s the only [striker] with a chance to play and he has put himself on the line,” he said. No pressure, then.

Rashford’s desire for more action, and a more central position seemed wholly justified in the early months of the season and many of us howled, though Mourinho’s reticence about that seems justified now.

He remains one of United’s great hopes yet is not the finished article. Becoming a mainstay is an incremental process. – The Independent