Mourinho meets old friend

MANCHESTER. — Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is in optimistic mood as he prepares to face an old friend in Middlesbrough handler Aitor Karanka, despite facing the prospect of being without his captain today.

Wayne Rooney was absent with a minor thigh problem as Manchester United recorded a fourth successive English Premier League soccer victory by beating Sunderland 3-1 on Boxing Day, and Mourinho admitted immediately after that match a quick recall may be unwise.

United are not short of attacking options even without Rooney who, in any case, has become an increasingly peripheral figure at Old Trafford this season.

Mourinho has made sure of saying all the right things with regards to the England forward’s value to his club, but the fact is he has started just eight of United’s 18 league matches under Mourinho, and has not scored in the English top division since the opening weekend.

United, though, can count on goals from elsewhere as they seek to defeat opponents led by Karanka, who was Mourinho’s assistant at Real Madrid.

Swedish veteran Zlatan Ibrahimovic, having endured a mini-drought in the autumn, has well and truly put that behind him.

His neat finish against Sunderland brought his 11th goal in the last 10 matches, and took his total in all competitions to 50 for the calendar year, a period that takes in his final months at Paris Saint-Germain and his last few games with Sweden before his summer international retirement. — AFP.