Mourinho: You wanted to see Mkhitaryan, I wanted too

Manchester United (a.k.a. Red Devils) manager José Mourinho explained why he decided to start Armenian midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan, instead of French international Anthony Martial, in the English football club’s Europa League group-stage clash Thursday against Feyenoord (Netherlands).

“He [Martial] was OK for this game, it was just an option,” the Portuguese specialist told reporters, according to Goal.com. “He played last Saturday, I cannot play with 12 players, I cannot use on the bench 19 or 20.

“You wanted to see Mkhitaryan, I wanted too. I cannot play all of them at the same time so it was just an option. Players have to win their positions.

“They are friends, they are colleagues, they work together every day but at the end they compete between themselves to have more chances to play and Anthony played against Arsenal, today was the moment to give a chance to Mkhitaryan to start.”

As reported earlier, Man United won the game by a score of 4-0. Also, the captain of the Armenia national squad, who returned to the Red Devils’ starting lineup, played 82 minutes.

In addition, Mkhitaryan was recognized Man of the Match, as a result of an online voting on the Manchester United official Twitter account.

The last time when the Armenia international had entered the pitch in the Red Devils’ starting eleven was on September 10, when, however, his thigh injury recurred during the club’s English Premier League derby against Manchester City.

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