Henrikh Mkhitaryan faces serious battle to hold down Man Utd place
Henrikh Mkhitaryan is facing a serious battle to hold down a regular first team place at Manchester United.
The Armenia midfielder has been left out of United’s squad for the past two games against Newcastle United and Basel after finally paying the price for weeks of poor form.
Mourinho has eight senior players competing for five places at the front end of the pitch depending on the system employed and Mkhitaryan has fallen down the pecking order after a series of disappointing performances and the return from injury of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Paul Pogba and Marouane Fellaini.
Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, Juan Mata, Romelu Lukaku and Jesse Lingard are United’s other main attacking options.
Mkhitaryan has been used predominantly in the No 10 role behind Lukaku this season but Mata and then Rashford were favoured in the position in a fluid 4-2-3-1 system in the 4-1 victory over Newcastle United last Saturday. In the 1-0 Champions League defeat to Basel on Wednesday, which Mkhitaryan was also omitted for despite travelling to Switzerland, Mourinho played Pogba and Fellaini behind Lukaku in a 4-1-4-1 formation he also often favours.
Ibrahimovic has also raised the prospect of being used in a deeper No 10 role following his return from a seven-month absence with cruciate ligament damage, but while Mourinho has claimed the Swede could play there, it remains to be seen if he becomes a viable option in the position. Mata would like to fill that role but he has mainly been used on the right and faces his own fight to hold down a regular first team place.
Mata, 29, is out of contract next summer but the club plan to invoke an option to extend his contract by 12 months to June 2019 to secure his immediate future and give Mourinho time to decide what he wants to do with the Spaniard.
Mkhitaryan, who will be 29 in January, has started 10 of United’s 12 Premier League matches so far this term but the increased competition for places has muddied the waters and it remains to be seen if he returns to the squad for the visit of Brighton to Old Trafford on Saturday.
Mourinho wants to bolster his attacking options in the next two transfer windows. United have been linked with moves for Atletico Madrid striker Antoine Griezmann and Arsenal playmaker Mesut Ozil while the manager remains in the market for a wide player after missing out on Inter Milan and Croatia winger Ivan Perisic last summer.
Mourinho was irritated by questions about Mkhitaryan’s absence this week. “It is a bit frustrating for me that there is always a question about some player who is not playing or not in the best of his form,” he said. “The question for many weeks was ‘Why don’t Rashford and Martial play together, now it’s ‘Why isn’t Mkhitaryan playing?’ The answer is very simple. Until the international board change the rules, I can only play 11.”
Meanwhile, Ibrahimovic has claimed in a recent interview that he would not trade his 33 career trophies for the one piece of silverware that eludes him – the Champions League.
"Of course, winning the Champions League would be massive, huge,” he said. “That is one of the targets, every season. But in the whole picture, if I could change one Champions League for my whole other 33 trophies, no.
“The way I see it is in the long term, what you achieved in the long term. I see many players who have won one Champions League and then nothing. Then you can say it in a different way - he won it because of luck, or because the team was good, but I have been winning every year.
“I don't know who to compare it to. Say players in a club like, [Steven] Gerrard [at Liverpool], with all the respect. He won the Champions League but never the Premier League. If you ask him what he would rather win, I think he would say the Premier League. So in the long term, it’s about what you achieved.”
