Manchester, Oct 26 (IANS) Admitting that he has got striker problems ahead of the Premier League game against Everton, Manchester United coach Jose Mourinho has ruled out bringing Zlatan Ibrahimovic back to the fold.
The United boss replied “no” when asked whether Ibrahimovic was an option keeping in mind Romelu Lukaku’s poor form, the Belgian has gone eight games without a goal.
“Well, against Juventus to give him (Lukaku) a break, I don’t think (Michael) Carrick can play as a striker. Or we play with the players that we did or we decide to give a rest to Lukaku, then (Marcus) Rashford, who plays as a winger,” Mourinho was quoted as saying by ESPNFC.
“We are not in the best moment to try to think about resting players or try to find solutions.The solution is to use the players we have. One day he will score and one day his confidence levels will be back to normal, which clearly they are not (at the moment) but I always feel that.”
Commenting on the international which are taking players away from the clubs, Mourinho said: “Some of the national teams were very professional with us and sent the players back and we could start the process early but some of them wouldn’t and they kept the players. We didn’t even know the dimension and nature of the injuries so when the players arrive two days before Chelsea we have no idea what is going on,”
Alexis Sanchez, who missed the midweek defeat to Juventus, is likely to be ruled out again, Mourinho also informed.
“(Sanchez) is struggling because he’s injured and he came to the Chelsea match to try to help the team but his physical condition was not good and then he had to stop and was not available for Juventus,” he said
“He arrived in January. I don’t think it is ever an easy situation for a player but this season he had a good start, a good preseason, he started well against Leicester and then he was injured.
“Then he came back and was injured again and he is the kind of player that needs to be really really sharp,” he added.
–IANS
dm/gau/vm