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Ahead of Manchester United's game against Watford, manager Jose Mourinho spoke in detail about his use of young striker Marcus Rashford in the past two seasons. Speaking during a pre-match conference on Friday, the United manager defended his decisions on the 20-year-old's game time so far.
The Portuguese has been criticized for not playing the striker enough in United's Premier League games despite his bright performances. England coach Gareth Southgate played Rashford in all 90 minutes of his team's games against Spain and Switzerland during the international break, with the striker scoring twice.
Southgate also emphasized the need for players to play first team football in order to make it into England's squad in time for its UEFA Nations League games in October.
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Speaking to the media on the issue, Mourinho said,
"If you don't mind losing a couple of minutes, I'm going to do something not for you [the media] but the United fans and I think I hold myself to the United fans and for them I am going to spend two minutes with you"
"In 2016-17, Marcus Rashford played 32 Premier League matches, 11 Europa League matches, including the final, three FA Cup matches, six League Cup matches and the Community Shield"
"He had 53 appearances, but if you want to take to the minutes of play, he played 3,068 and if you want to divide that by 90 minutes matches, he played 34.2 matches of 90 minutes matches in 2016-17"
"In 2017-18, 35 Premier League matches, eight in the Champions League, five in FA Cup, three League Cup matches and the European Super Cup final"
"He played a total of 52 matches with 2,676 minutes, if you divide that by 90 minutes, gives 29.7 matches"
"So with me, in two seasons, he had 105 appearances, 5,774 mins, 63.7 matches of 90 minutes, including five finals, so the people that are speaking about these minutes, I think they are a bit confused"
"Marcus Rashford is not Dominic Solanke. He is not Ruben Loftus-Cheek, he is not Dominic Calvert-Lewin"
"He is Marcus Rashford, a Manchester United player, with an incredible number of appearances and an incredible number of minutes played at the highest level in the best possible competitions"
"So Manchester United supporters, for you and just for you, to know what we are doing with Marcus Rashford, that's what we are doing here"
Fans have since taken to Twitter to comment on the issue.
