FEYENOORD 1, MANCHESTER UNITED 0 (EUROPA LEAGUE GROUP A)
- Jose Mourinho makes eight changes from side that lost at home to Manchester City in the derby last weekend
- Wayne Rooney left out of the squad – rested
- Tonny Vilhena strike wins it for Feyenoord despite suspicion of offside in the build-up
The Reds will hope a blip doesn’t turn into a trend after a shock defeat at Feyenoord in the Europa League following on from a difficult derby defeat against Manchester City last weekend.
Jose Mourinho opted for eight changes from last weekend’s game but the Reds surprisingly went down 1-0 at Feyenoord in the opening game of their Europa League campaign in Holland.
It was a record fourth straight defeat in European away games for the first time for United as Mourinho’s makeshift team struggled to make an impact against the Dutch league leaders who won with a Tonny Vilhena strike 11 minutes from the end to extend their own winning run to six games in all competitions.
The goal should arguably have not been allowed to stand after a suspicion of offside in the build-up but in truth their second defeat in a row after four straight wins at the start of the season was only what they deserved.
Mourinho had earlier admitted that the Europa League was an unwanted distraction and the team he picked played like they didn’t want to be in the competition.
Five of their players were making their first starts of the season as the Portuguese retained only David De Gea, Eric Bailly and Paul Pogba from last Saturday’s derby team.
Pogba was again disappointing despite being handed an advanced role in midfield while Memphis Depay’s end product was lacking after he came on during the second half with the Reds struggling to break down their Dutch hosts in a game of few clear chances.
Marcos Rojo, Matteo Darmian, Marcus Rashford, Chris Smalling and Morgan Schneiderlin failed to make an impression on the game and the Reds looked static for much of the night with Rashford starved of service.
Even the introduction of Zlatan Ibrahimovic couldn’t improve matters for the Reds and the sight of Smalling up front at the end as United went long will not have improved the mood of fans.
Mourinho has already admitted that his first team will return for the visit to Watford on Sunday.