United discover life after Zlatan
ANTHONY MARTIAL and Wayne Rooney, two forwards whose stars have been eclipsed for so much of this season by Zlatan Ibrahimovic, proved to Jose Mourinho that they are able to fi ll the void left by the Swede’s season- ending injury.
The pair scored the goals that set up an intriguing Manchester derby at the Etihad on Thursday in which a United victory would allow them to leapfrog City into fourth place.
And even if Martial’s goal – his 25th in United colours – triggered a bonus clause that means they will pay Monaco an additional £ 8.3million, that will appear money well spent if the youngster continues in such a vein.
“Yes,” said Mourinho when asked if Martial had responded as he wished following the manager’s midweek criticism of the France striker. “It was a good performance by him – with the ball and without the ball .”
Martial proved that with the opening goal after 21 minutes, when he won the ball from Joey Barton deep in United territory, launched a counter- attack with a pass to Ander Herrera and took the return pass before fi nishing from six yards.
Burnley manager Sean Dyche said Barton should have fouled Martial early in the move, but it was so swift and devastating he would have been hard pressed to do so.
The second goal, after 39 minutes, again came from Martial’s pace and trickery. He took a Paul Pogba pass, had a shot blocked by Tom Heaton and then watched as NO MORE TEARS: Martial and Rooney celebrate the fi rst score Thursday, although he insists the Europa League semi- fi nal with Celta Vigo is the more important fi xture.
“I will rotate again, give rest to some players again,” he said. “Of course it’s important to play in the Champions League but this club wants trophies. We have a 25 per cent chance to win the Europa League and have to put everything into it we can.”
Pogba, who limped out of the game in added time with a muscle injury, is set to be rested and Mourinho issued a challenge to Chris Smalling and Phil Jones to come back from their injuries to give in- form Eric Bailly a rest.
“If I was Smalling or Jones, I would play Thursday with everything. I wouldn’t accept one guy to play nine matches in a row,” he said. “If they have a crazy mentality like I have, they would play. If it was me, nobody would stop me playing.”
Bailly was impressive at Turf Moor, although he had little to do against a Burnley team in danger of being sucked into the relegation frame .
An off- target Ben Mee header was the closest to a fi rst- half goal while, after the interval, United could have extended their advantage. Heaton dived to keep out Pogba’s low drive while late shots from Rooney and Pogba shaved the post.
BURNLEY ( 4- 4- 2):