De Gea And Eric Bailly Wont Feature Against Burton Albion – Mourinho

Jose Mourinho has promised to take the League Cup seriously again this season with the Manchester United manager planning to rest just four of his stars for the clash with Burton Albion on Wednesday.

Mourinho will give David De Gea, Antonio Valencia, Nemanja Matic and Eric Bailly the night off as United start their defence of the trophy against Nigel Clough’s Championship side.

But first-team regulars Romelu Lukaku, Marcus Rashford and Henrikh Mkhitaryan are set to be included in the squad for the game at Old Trafford as Mourinho looks to add to his four successes in the competition.

He said: “I gave only four players two days off, apart from that everyone is selected. Do you want to know which four? David De Gea, Antonio Valencia, Matic and Bailly.

“It’s football, it’s competition and we take it seriously. Of course, David and Bailly aren’t playing but if you go to the next round probably these guys play and I give rest to others.

“Our squad is good but we don’t have 30 players, we have what we have and a couple of injuries now with [Paul] Pogba and [Axel] Tuanzebe, so we need some of the players that played against Everton to play and we need some to be on the bench, we need to have a strong team.

“I know the quality of the Championship, and I know if we don’t take it seriously, we are going to lose.”
Mourinho added: “Romero played the Europa League final, which was the game of the season for us and he is not playing.

“Ander Herrera was player of the season and is not starting matches. That’s life in big clubs.

“We gave Michael a contract because we think he is a good player, an important player, he is just in a team where I think in this moment Matic and [Marouane] Fellaini are in the best form that I have ever seen them.

“I never saw Matic or Fellaini play so well, so he is in a team with these two guys playing absolutely phenomenal so for Carrick and Ander it’s just patience because that time will arrive and they will be important players for us for sure.

“That’s a team, that’s a squad, we can only play with 11 guys.”