Jose Mourinho’s men brought themselves back amongst the goal as they defeated Newcastle United 4-1 at home on Saturday. The match saw the return of midfielder Paul Pogba into the starting lineup as the Frenchman played an influential role – scoring one and assisting one on the night.
But another big surprise in the starting XI was the fact that Jose Mourinho opted to start with both Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial – something that the Portuguese has rarely done this season. And this selection paid dividend too as Martial scored a goal in the first half while Rashford assisted Pogba’s tap-in in the second.
And Jose Mourinho has finally revealed why he does not choose both Martial and Rashford in the starting lineup. According to Mourinho, both the players prefer to play on the left side of the pitch and that is the main reason why both of them do not get the nod at the start of the match.
“They both like to play in the same position and that is difficult,” Mourinho said. “They both prefer to play on the left than the right, both playing with another striker through the middle, we lose a point of contact with the midfield that we are used to, with the player playing behind the striker.
“But we found then a certain balance and when they start finding, sometimes both, one opening the left and one on the mid-left between the striker and the left winger, it was the moment where we start creating more.
“But to be honest Newcastle was probably the team, not in the second-half, but in the first-half which come here and we felt a bit of instability in our defensive areas, and that was clearly not because of the defensive players but because of our balance.
“So to play them [Martial and Rashford] together gives us things but also takes some things from us.”
So it looks as if Mourinho is listening to both Rashford and Martial when it comes to team selections and wants both his forwards to play in their prefered position – something which is very unlikely of the Portuguese.
