JOSE MOURINHO HAS TO EXPLAIN UNITED MATCH AGAINST LEICESTER

JOSE MOURINHO has explained his team selection for Manchester United's match against Leicester.

By Yungsam

Wayne Rooney was left out of the squad to face Leicester with Manchester United claiming that their captain's absence was due to an illness.

Phil Jones also missed out due to injury with Michael Carrick dropping to the bench in place of Juan Mata.

United were held to a frustrating 0-0 draw in the midweek game against Hull leading to Jose Mourinho selecting an attack-minded starting XI against Leicester.

GETTY

Jose Mourinho wants Manchester United to go on the offensive against Leicester

GETTY

Juan Mata was chosen in place of Michael Carrick

And the United boss wants to see his forward thinking players take the game to Leicester to close the gap to the top four.

"Phil is injured, nothing really important but impossible to play today, and I prefer to play with Mata and start immediately with one more attacking player," said Mourinho.

"Mata is playing a lot and all the attacking players we do a lot of rotation because we have so many matches and so many options and I have to say I'm really happy with the way they are playing and the team is playing.