One Wembley visit is just not enough
PHIL JONES has summed up the “hunger” for trophies that burns in Manchester United’s current squad.
“It’s not enough just to win one cup,” declared the defender.
United booked their first cup final of Jose Mourinho’s tenure when they scraped past Hull City in the EFL Cup last Thursday and today they can make more progress in the FA Cup when Championship side Wigan Athletic visit Old Trafford.
They are still in four competitions, with an outside chance of the Premier League title and a more realistic shot at the Europa League.
“We set our standards high,” said Jones. “This club has a history of winning trophies. And while we have no given right to do that, winning the FA Cup last season was not enough.
“We need to do more. We need to be involved in more finals and pushing for more trophies.
“We are delighted to be through to a final and to go to Wembley but we weren’t happy with ourselves after the second leg against Hull.
“The defeat took the gloss off it a bit and it was a disappointed dressing room. It’s a mark of how well we’ve done that we are so disappointed. We set our standards high.
“It takes a lot of character from players to achieve that and to throw it away was so disappointing. But hopefully we can pull together, put that one to bed as we’re in the final, and look forward.
“Wigan won’t be easy but we have to pick ourselves up because the result in midweek was not what we wanted.
“We’re still in every cup competition and there’s no reason why we can’t go to the Europa League final. We need good performances and everyone in the squad pulling in the right direction and battling for each other.
“We’d rather be in the Champions League but there are some good teams in the Europa League. It won’t be easy but it’s a genuine target for us.”
Mourinho will shuffle his pack for today’s game and will give one more chance to French striker Anthony Martial, who he accused last week of not taking previous chances before leaving him out of the squad at Hull.
Mourinho said, “He needs to listen to me, not his agent,” after the player’s representative said he wanted to explore the possibility of a move to Sevilla in this transfer window.
“What I’m looking for him to do is to guarantee himself a place for the next match. If he plays really well, obviously he is in the next game. If he doesn’t play well, I have other choices.
“He has great conditions to become a top player, but I have other players for the same positions and they have to fight between them.
“At Hull I played Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard, the game before I played Juan Mata and Henrikh Mkhitaryan and in this one I will play Martial.
“I will make some other changes. I will give David De Gea some days off and play Sergio Romero, I play Luke Shaw, I play Wayne Rooney.”
Mourinho also indicated the door is still open for Bastian Schweinsteiger to make a contribution during what will be a hectic second half of the season.
“I don’t know for today because I have to read the situation and decide,” he says. “But we don’t have many midfield players so of course he will be in our Europa League squad.”