Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has confirmed club captain Wayne Rooney will start the FA Cup clash with Reading on Saturday, and Bastian Schweinsteiger may also make an appearance.
The Red Devils chief addressed the press on Friday ahead of his team’s clash with the Royals. After stringing together six consecutive wins in the Premier League, they’ll head into this showdown at Old Trafford in high spirits.
Per the club’s Twitter feed, Mourinho revealed Rooney will be involved from the off, while Sergio Romero will step in to replace David De Gea:
Mourinho also confirmed Schweinsteiger is part of the squad for the contest. “He’s selected again, so he can start, he can be on the bench, but he’s an option for us,” the manager said, per the United website. “I think that’s the best way to describe [him]; for many months he wasn’t an option, we made that decision.”
United’s last outing was the 2-0 win over West Ham United, during which the team eventually ground down their obdurate opponents. Afterwards, Mourinho was seen embracing De Gea, who made a key save in the second half to keep the scores level.
Mourinho spoke of how important goalkeepers are to success, although he suggested they shouldn’t be the most significant figure at a club like United.
“I think when a goalkeeper is the player of the season it means something is wrong,” he said, per Jack Rathborn of the Daily Mirror. “I would love my goalkeeper to win the golden glove, they are lonely guys at one end of the field. I made a point to hug him at West Ham because no save from [Michail] Antonio means no three points.”
De Gea will be absent for the upcoming clash, while Mourinho also confirmed he will make changes to the team in other areas.
Aside from discussing the status of his squad after such a busy spell, Mourinho also introduced a special guest at the media briefing, per the club’s official Twitter feed:
The match will also see the return of a United hero to Old Trafford, with the club’s former defender Jaap Stam in the opposition dugout for the game as Reading manager.
Mourinho is expecting the Dutchman, who was part of the Red Devils’ remarkable treble win in 1999, to receive a tremendous ovation from the supporters:
The game will be serious business for the United chief, though, and he wants his team to keep up the standards set in Premier League matches and notch an eighth win in a row in all competitions:
The United boss also reaffirmed that both Morgan Schneiderlin and Memphis Depay can depart midseason, although no bid has been accepted for either player yet.
“Their situation is exactly the same, both of them,” he noted of the duo, per Rathborn. “I will allow them to leave, the club will allow if the right offer comes. Until this moment, no.”
Although Mourinho wasn’t in charge when United won the FA Cup last season, he’s a manager that’s always sought to secure some kind of silverware in his first term in charge of a new club. So while there will likely be a much changed XI on show at Old Trafford on Saturday, he will not want to see any drop off in terms of intensity and application.
Reading are enjoying a fine campaign themselves in the Championship, sitting in third spot, and will head to Old Trafford with nothing to fear and unburdened by any pressure. That makes them a dangerous opponent, although Mourinho will be expecting his players to secure a safe passage into Round 4.