Luke Shaw and Antonio Valencia to return to Manchester United XI for Watford clash

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho will recall Luke Shaw and Antonio Valencia to his first-team for the trip to Watford on Sunday. Mourinho opted to leave both his first-choice options at full-back out of his squad for United's opening Europa League group game against Feyenoord in Rotterdam on Thursday (15 September).

In their places, Matteo Darmian and Marcos Rojo made their first appearances of the season at right-back and left-back respectively.

Both may have to wait before they are given another opportunity in the first-team however, with Rojo in particular struggling as United crashed to a humiliating 1-0 defeat.

Mourinho made eight changes to the side that lost to Manchester City last Sunday with Darmian and Rojo among six players making their first starting appearances of the season. But the former Chelsea manager is expected to revert to a more familiar line-up for their match at Vicarage Road.

"It is obvious that we left players like Valencia and Shaw at home to play and to rest so we go back to a normal team without so many changes," Mourinho told BT Sport ahead the Watford game.

United captain Wayne Rooney and Jesse Lingard were also left out of the squad that travelled to Rotterdam, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Phil Jones ruled out with injuries.

A lacklustre United failed to test Feyenoord goalkeeper Brad Jones throughout Thursday's match where a slow tempo saw them fail to carve out any real opportunities.

Mourinho opted to leave Zlatan Ibrahimovic on the bench but turned to the striker in the second half, making all three changes at once with Ashley Young and Memphis Depay also entering the fray. Their introductions failed to change United's fortunes, with Nicolai Jorgenson, despite springing into an offside position, teeing up Tonny Vilhana to tap home a winner with just over 10 minutes of the contest remaining.