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28th Nov 2017

Jose Mourinho goes for a back five for trip to Watford and Marcos Rojo starts

Conan Doherty

Game respects game.

Jose Mourinho, in truth, respects just about everyone far too much.

But a trip to Vicarage Road these days is no stroll in the park and, any time Marco Silva is in the same ground as you, you really had best bring your A Game.

For the Manchester United manager, bringing an A Game could never, ever conceivably involve going onto the front foot and planning a way to put another team to the sword. For Mourinho, the best way to play any game is to just stay alive and hope the others fall on their own swords first.

He’s the one everyone hates playing in FIFA. He sets up defensively, he jockeys you incessantly, he runs the ball to the corner and back out again and he watches every single replay of the shitty, flukey goals he scores.

With that in mind, he’s picked his team for the away game against Watford and it looks like five at the back.

With wing backs of Valencia and Young, the usual midfield duo of Matic and Pogba, the manager has opted for Martial and Jesse Lingard to play behind Lukaku.

The welcome news is that Marcos Rojo is in for his first Premier League game of the season having played the full clash with Basel last week.

The bad news is they’re playing five at the back.

And Lingard is playing.