Jose Mourinho is the kind of manager who holds no prisoners. He has not been afraid to sell players – even if they are in the highly talented category – if he feels that they are not performing to their 100%. After having made a strong start to the season, Manchester United have slipped with back-to-back defeats in the last two games.
Especially the loss against Manchester City will hurt, but the defeat against Feyenoord in the midweek Europa League action showed a lack of confidence amongst the fringe players. It makes for a bad reading since Mourinho now is aware that his replacements may not be good enough for the starting line-up. Here are three players who have to step up their game in order to stay at United:
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Henrikh Mkhitaryan
The experienced Armenian international was one of the big money purchases in the summer. He was expected to add experience and quality to the team straight away. However, the 27-year-old has been quite poor in all his appearances so far, and he is yet to complete the full 90 minutes in the Manchester United shirt. His worst performance by far came in the Manchester derby and Mourinho did not waste any time in removing him at half-time. He has had 107 minutes of action in the league but has come up with only one shot per game. He is also yet to make an assist or score a goal.
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Anthony Martial
Even though he was considered as an unpolished diamond, United still had to come up with an astronomical £36 million for Martial. After an impressive first season, Martial is expected to hit the strides in the ongoing campaign. At 20 years of age, he may feel like having a lot of time to improve his game but United are unlikely to offer him this luxury. Martial is already in danger of losing his first-team spot after having failed to score any goals in 236 minutes of league action.
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Chris Smalling
One of the most affected players upon the arrival of Eric Bailly has been Chris Smalling. The brilliant performances of the Ivory Coast international have led to inevitable comparisons with Nemanja Vidic. It has also starved Smalling in terms of the first-team opportunities, and the 26-year-old is badly in need of some game time not just to save his United career, but also his international career. Smalling has had just two minutes of league action this season (in the Premier League).
