Jose Mourinho ruing decision to leave Marcus Rashford on the bench

Jose Mourinho believes the result of the Manchester derby would have been different had Marcus Rashford started the game ahead of either Henrikh Mkhitaryan or Jesse Lingard. The Red Devils lost to neighbours Manchester City 2-1 on Saturday (10 September) at Old Trafford.

The Portuguese manager admitted after the game that starting Mkhitaryan and Lingard was a mistake as Rashford made an instant impact after being introduced at half-time with the former two withdrawn for their ineffectiveness. Mourinho also made it clear that he will make a number of changes for Manchester United's upcoming clash against Feyenoord in the Europa League on Thursday (15 September).

Rashford is in line to make his first competitive start under Mourinho, after the manager confirmed that he will play against the Eredivisie side. The 18-year-old created a number of opportunities after being introduced and even had a goal ruled out for offside, albeit rightly during a bright spell for United. However, they were unable to find the equaliser, which ended their 100% start to the new campaign.

"I felt they had the fragility on the sides and the kids could give us that in the second half on the sides what we didn't get with Miki and Jesse in the first half," Mourinho said, as quoted on Manchester Evening News.

"He (Rashford) did that for us and because we were playing with Herrera behind Fellaini and Pogba. I knew that Fellaini and Pogba were going to be in the box all the time so I thought the game was going to be very direct like it was.

"So I think we read the game really well, the kid gave us what we had needed in the first half and normally we would be here now speaking about a different result," the Portuguese coach added.