With three defeats in a row, Jose Mourinho’s brilliant start to his Manchester United tenure has been completely forgotten. Suddenly everything is looking out of order and except some hand full of players, no one is performing at the level expected from them. The manager is under severe pressure to drop club captain Wayne Rooney and on the other hand, world’s most expensive player, Paul Pogba, is currently struggling to find his touch and this has put the management under the spotlight. The only spark on the only field for United is Marcus Rashford right now. The English teenager has looked in superb touch and has already got on the scoresheet a couple of times.

This season will be very important for Mourinho and he knows that he must win at least one trophy and secure qualification to the Champions League. These two goals set before pre-season could well be dealt altogether if Manchester United win the Europa Leauge, a tournament that has always been looked down upon as a distraction. United have never been too keen on Europe’s second most premier club competition, but right now, a good performance in that tournament could give Mourinho the successful start that he was looking for.

This is not to say that United can’t win the league or finish in the top four but it is also very difficult to predict where any team will finish right now. Everyone has strengthened tremendously and will be looking to better their performance from last year. Manchester City are already looking like the favourites, with Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham also doing well overall.

With the amount of investment that has gone into preparing Jose Mourinho’s squad this summer, it is highly unlikely that they will finish anywhere else but the top four but then no one would have predicted Leicester winning the title and Chelsea finishing 10th. The Europa League will also give Mourinho the chance to bring in some youngsters into the first team set-up. Often criticised for ignoring the academy players, Mourinho will win a number of fans across the globe if he can win the Europa League with a mix of youngster’s and senior players.

It will also give Mourinho the chance to test his side in home conditions as well as abroad, something that will come in very handy next season when hopefully they will be taking part in the Champions League. Therefore we don’t see any reason why Mourinho should not prioritise the Europa League this season.