Angry Mourinho bids to dampen Henrikh Mkhitaryan claims

Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho says he cannot win with his team selection after being questioned about Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s absence.

Mkhitaryan, 28, was left out of the squad that defeated Newcastle 4-1 at Old Trafford on Saturday and the Armenian cut a lonely figure at training this week.

The Sun have reported that Mourinho has “major reservations” over the Armenia midfielder, who has made 13 Premier League and Champions League starts this season, scoring twice.

Mkhitaryan became Mourinho’s third signing at United when he arrived from Borussia Dortmund for €42million in July 2016, but he has failed to fulfil his potential so far at United.

Still he has had plenty of game time this season and Mourinho said at his press conference yesterday that the only reason he dropped Mkhitaryan was to play Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford together.

The United boss has been under pressure to start the pair together and has admitted it would be “difficult” for the two attacking players to start together.

Ahead of United’s Champions League clash with Basel on Wednesday, Mourinho said: “There are no questions about Anthony Martial and no questions about Chris Smalling.

“There are always questions about somebody in a certain moment, a certain match and a certain period that didn’t play.

“The story is always the same. In some positions, when you don’t have injuries, you have lots of options in other positions.

“In this moment, we have Pogba, Marouane Fellaini, Ander Herrera, Nemanja Matic and Scott McTominay. So I can imagine, next week, you are going to ask – why is this player not playing?

“Micki is not playing because we had lots of options for that match. I decided to play Marcus Rashford and Martial together.

“For many weeks, the questions was – why do they not play together? Now the question is why is Micki not playing.

“The answer is every simple – until the international board change the rules, I can only start with 11!”