Jose Mourinho: Pogba return date + Wayne Rooney in midfield

Old Trafford Whisperer
Apr 29, 2017
2 min read

The boss confirmed captain Wayne Rooney would be in contention to start against Swansea at Old Trafford on Sunday with Marouane Fellaini suspended and United missing a host of first team members.

In his first ever press conference as United boss, Jose stressed he didn't see Rooney as a midfielder and vowed never to play him in midfield citing the strikers natural eye for goal.

However, it appears now that circumstances could break that vow especially with United having only Michael Carrick and Ander Herrera as the only recognizable central midfielders available.

Asked if Rooney could feature in midfield, he said “Yes, he’s an option,” he said. “We don’t have (any other players there). We have (Ander) Herrera and (Michael) Carrick and nothing else.”

"Tim (Fosu-Mensah) is another one that we miss so we are in trouble but we will fight that’s for sure."

Asked if there was any player nearing a return, he said

"I think the first one to be back is Mata, which gives us another option in attack but, in reality, what we need now is one of the two central defenders to be back."

He was even asked if it was clever to let Morgan Schneiderlin and Bastian Schweinsteiger leave considering the number of fit bodies we are missing at the moment.

"To have lots of players without playing is something the players don’t want," said the manager. "We didn’t tell Morgan we wanted to sell him. Morgan asked, 'Please sell me, I want to go. I want to play every game.' "Sometimes there is always this dilemma, to keep a bigger squad but the players don’t want to stay. Even young players, when they’re not playing, they ask to leave so it is very hard.

On a more relaxing note he was asked if Pogba would play against Swansea, after missing the derby with a thigh strain.

"No. For Celta, yes," he said.