Jose Mourinho explains why his captain will not play against Young Boys tonight
Football
By
Mirror
| Sep 19, 2018
Manchester United kickstart their Champions League campaign in Switzerland tonight.
But Jose Mourinho has decided to rest one key player amid fears over the plastic pitch that will greet his side.
United's Group H opener will be played out on a synthetic 3G pitch at the Stade de Suisse.
And it has forced the Portuguese boss to leave captain Antonio Valencia out of his plans in order to protect the full-back from suffering any problems with his knee.
"We decide not to play Antonio Valencia because his knee is not a knee that needs an artificial pitch at all," said Mourinho, speaking in his pre-match press conference.
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"Valencia's situation, we need to protect his clinical situation, apart from that we go with everything we have and have to try and win.
"So, we brought Luke Shaw back to the squad and to the team.
"I told already Luke Shaw is playing and apart from him we have Diogo, Ashley Young and Darmian ready to play."
Mourinho, however, insists he will not use Young Boys' pitch as an excuse.
"I don't want to use the pitch, especially before the match, as a possible excuse for a not very good performance," he added.
Marcus Rashford is line to start, meanwhile, with the striker set to accompany Romelu Lukaku in attack.
Probable Manchester United starting line-up:
De Gea, Darmian, Smalling, Lindelof, Shaw, Matic, Fellaini, Pogba, Mata, Lukaku, Rashford.