Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is planning to drop midfielder Paul Pogba and forward Alexis Sanchez for Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final meeting with Tottenham Hotspur, reports The Sun. Both players have been underwhelming for United this season and may be taken out of the spotlight.
The pair underperformed in Sunday’s defeat to West Bromwich Albion and may lose their place in the starting lineup as a result, Mourinho has admitted. United have a league game to come before the FA Cup clash, with the Red Devils travelling to face Bournemouth on Wednesday, but big changes will be made next weekend.
Pogba was hauled off in the second half of Sunday’s 1-0 defeat to Albion, with Mourinho calling his performance ‘complicated’. The French international impressed a week earlier as United beat Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium, but last weekend’s defeat gave the title to the Sky Blues.
Currently second in the Premier League, United are 11 points clear of fifth-placed Chelsea with five games remaining and should be in the Champions League next season. They only have one winnable competition left, however, and Mourinho has already made up his mind on which players will make the starting eleven.
“Some of the guys that played against West Brom don’t have a place in that team. If I play a player against Bournemouth and the player is phenomenal, he plays the semi-final,” Mourinho said.
“It is not rotating because rotating looks like a player who plays against Bournemouth is giving a rest to somebody that is going to play against Spurs in the semi-final.
“I only know one criteria for a manager to choose a team — the way they play. Or do you want me to go for the price they cost, their salary or their beautiful face?”
When will Mourinho choose a judicial lineup? When will he stop put players play off-position? What s strange tactician he makes…I wonder whether he knows what football is!