José Mourinho will not move for a centre-back despite Marcos Rojo’s injury potentially leaving only Phil Jones and Chris Smalling available going into Tuesday’s EFL semi-final against Hull City and Sunday’s league meeting with Liverpool.
Rojo suffered a muscle strain in Saturday’s 4-0 FA Cup third-round win over Reading and had to be replaced after 19 minutes. As Eric Bailly is away with Ivory Coast on Africa Cup of Nations duty, the manager may be down to only two central defenders.
Mourinho is yet to discover how serious Rojo’s problem is and after the victory over Reading was careful not to put a timescale on how long the Argentinian may be out. “People like to say: ‘First degree, x days out, second degree x days out.’ Let’s wait to see,” he said.
Yet Rojo’s injury has not changed Mourinho’s strategy, though any further setback may force him to rethink.
José Fonte, a long-term target, could then be an option as the 33-year-old has told Southampton he wants to leave. His club-mate Virgil van Dijk has also impressed this term and Benfica’s Swedish centre-half Victor Lindelof, whom United hope to land in the summer, is a further player of interest.
Bailly, whose Ivory Coast side beat Sweden in a friendly on Sunday, is keen to play with Lindelof. “We have many good central defenders – Chris Smalling, Marcos Rojo and Phil Jones – but I hope I get to play with Lindelof,” he told fotbollskanalen.
Mourinho has said his team will play Hull with “all the power” they have for the first leg in an attempt to establish an advantage. United host Marco Silva’s team in the midst of a fine run of form, an eighth consecutive victory and 14th match unbeaten. United are sixth in the Premier League, 26 points better off than Hull.
Yet Mourinho is intent that United take Hull, whose manager is a friend, seriously. “The second leg is away so if we can do something in the first leg to give us an advantage, we will try that,” he said. “Hull may look at the semi-final as a big occasion. Maybe for them they have a more important game three days later in Premier League. Liverpool is a big match for us [on Sunday] but we want to be in the final.”
Mourinho has won the competition three times with Chelsea and he wants United to also try and claim the EFL Cup. “For big clubs, a competition is a competition. I was never good at choosing competitions. You get a very busy fixture list but you are in these competitions to try and win. I won it twice in Cardiff but at Wembley the meaning is better. Why not try? We are going to try.
“Hull have a new manager, an intelligent guy who will organise his team. It is not easy to come to the Premier League when you are a foreign coach. I spoke to him on Friday. He knows it is difficult because they are bottom of the league but it is a big opportunity for him.
“He is a good young coach. He went to Greece. Nobody knows he was champion there. Now he comes to the big one. It is a big opportunity. I hope he loses three matches [against United] and wins all the rest. His formation was [always] good.”
Silva managed Estoril from 2011-14 and then Sporting and Olympiakos for a season apiece. “He started from below, he was not given a top job immediately, and did well in a small job. He goes to Sporting. He won the cup and finished second, goes to Greece and is champion,” Mourinho added. “He is very stable. In spite of him being so young he is experienced. He is mature. I would love him to do well. But it is hard to jump from the bottom of the league.”
Mourinho will field a changed side on Tuesday. “Against Hull I will play with fresh players. It is easy to know our team: Zlatan [Ibrahimovic], [Paul] Pogba, [Antonio] Valencia, [Ander] Herrera. To win it we have to win three matches. Hull and [in the final] Liverpool or Southampton. The fact we are winning matches is good. We are not going to throw away an opportunity [to continue].”