Search icon

Football

14th Aug 2016

Jose Mourinho springs a pleasant surprise as he names his first Manchester United team

First Premier League team

Conan Doherty

Juan Mata starts!

It turns out that Jose Mourinho doesn’t hate the Spaniard after all.

It turns out that bringing him on and then subbing him off again in the Community Shield didn’t spell the end for the Manchester United attacker’s future at the club.

The new manager has named his first Premier League team as the Old Trafford outfit head south to face off with Bournemouth in their domestic opener and it looks pretty clear that they’re opting for a 4-2-3-1.

The Spanish international looks set to take up a position on the right, Martial on the left, with Wayne Rooney playing behind Ibrahimovic.

Zlatan, incidentally, has another chance for another first as the friendlies are gone, the ‘competitive’ fixtures are gone and now we’re in competitive competitive territory.

With a bench boasting Michael Carrick and Morgan Schneiderlin – last year’s usual holding midfield have been relegated under the new stewardship but the subs look strong with Rashford, Mkhitaryan and… *cough* Memphis also available.

One man couldn’t be farther from the action though.

The FootballJOE quiz: Were you paying attention? – episode 10