2 Dec 2016

Mourinho's team news for Everton trip


02/12/2016 13:56, Report by Adam Marshall

Mourinho's team news for Everton trip

Jose Mourinho has confirmed Luke Shaw could miss out on the weekend trip to Everton but Manchester United will welcome Paul Pogba and Marouane Fellaini back from suspension.
Shaw was withdrawn at half-time during the convincing 4-1 win over West Ham United in the EFL Cup on Wednesday with Daley Blind replacing him in the left-back slot. However, Pogba and Fellaini, who will be hoping to face his former club, are available for the Goodison Park encounter - even if another ex-Everton player Wayne Rooney is ruled out after also picking up five yellow cards this term.

There are numerous options for the boss in attacking positions, though, with Anthony Martial and Henrikh Mkhitaryan grasping their opportunities to impress in midweek. Mourinho also suggested centre-backs Chris Smalling and Eric Bailly appear unlikely to feature on Merseyside.

"The injury [to Luke] is a pity," he told MUTV. "We were on this process of developing him as a player - he has a lot to learn and great potential to develop so we were giving him 90 minutes. Not consecutive matches but 90 minutes against Feyenoord then, one week later, 90 minutes against West Ham, but he got this little injury.

"In the squad, we are in a very good position with injuries - the two central defenders and Luke is what we have. Everybody is doing really well to keep that record good in such a difficult season with so many matches. Hopefully, we progress in the cup competitions and have more cup games to play in the second part of the season.

"Wayne's absence comes in the sequence of the yellow cards that stopped Ibra [Zlatan Ibrahimovic] playing against Arsenal, the sequence of yellow cards that stopped Marouane Fellaini and Paul Pogba playing against West Ham. But, okay, everybody makes mistakes and [it's] no problem."

The only absentee for Everton is defensive midfielder Mo Besic, who is due to return in February, as Ronald Koeman has no fresh injury worries.

MUTV will show more from the manager, plus interviews with Anthony Martial and Phil Jones, in Friday's Countdown To Kick-Off at 18:30 GMT.

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