Anthony Martial will have to be play well against Wigan Athletic in Sunday’s FA Cup tie to retain his place, with José Mourinho not concerned at how the 21-year-old has received being dropped from Manchester United’s previous two match-day squads.
Martial last featured when starting in the 1-1 draw with Liverpool at Old Trafford on 15 January. Mourinho took the forward off after 65 minutes and Martial was left out of the squad selected for Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Stoke City and Thursday’s 2-1 EFL Cup defeat at Hull City. Despite that defeat in the semi-final second leg United progressed to next month’s final against Southampton on aggregate.
Asked how Martial reacted to being excluded Mourinho said: “I don’t speak with the players about how they take it. He will play Sunday and if he plays magnificent, he will play against Hull City in the next match. It’s simple.”
Mourinho said the left-back Luke Shaw, who has not featured since the 4-1 victory over West Ham United in November because of injury, would also start against Wigan and David de Gea would be rested, with Sergio Romero playing in goal.
The EFL Cup final is on 26 February, which means the derby at Manchester City, scheduled for that day, will be moved. United are still in the Europa League and sixth in the Premier League, four points behind Liverpool, who occupy the final Champions League berth. Mourinho is concerned that competing in all four competitions will hinder United’s hopes of retaining the FA Cup.
“Now we have a problem already, which is the fact we don’t play Manchester City when we should. We play Europa League, which is not like Champions League with four fixtures for two matches. The week before the final against Southampton we prepare by playing at St-Étienne. If we progress in the FA Cup, another round. It’s really difficult for us but it’s for good reasons – the good reasons are we progress in competitions.”
Wigan are managed by Warren Joyce, the former United reserve team manager, and are fourth bottom in the Championship, a point above the relegation zone. Mourinho said: “We know the difficulty to play against a Championship team. We played Wigan in pre-season [winning 2-0]; now they are with Warren. He knows us, he will come with special motivation to play against his old club. They will bring lots of fans too, so the match is going to be difficult. We have to play with a very good team.
“I worked with Warren just for a few months but that was enough to know he’s a very passionate football man. He took the risk, he accepted the challenge. He left a good situation in our club to try what we call ‘men’s football’ and, for sure, he will come with a team that’s very aggressive, well organised defensively, emotional – the manager is also emotional. I will make some changes.
“I have to. We play Hull City again two days after Wigan but I’m going to play with a good team, a team with the responsibility to give the fans a good performance at home and with the responsibility to try to win.”
