Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has defended his record of playing Marcus Rashford and insisted that the striker has been playing more football than any other English youngster of his age at other top clubs.
Rashford’s goals for England during the international break opened the debate about his perceived lack of playing time at Manchester United under Mourinho.
There have been suggestions that the striker will need to leave Manchester United and get away from Mourinho in order to play more football and develop further.
Mourinho rolled out statistics, which paints a different picture, and pointed out that Rashford has made a total of 105 appearances since he took charge of the club and has played more than five and a half thousand minutes of football.
He insisted that it is a direct contrast to how youngsters such as Dominic Solanke or Ruben Loftus-Cheek are being treated at Liverpool or Chelsea at the moment.
He said in his press conference: “In the season 16/17, Marcus Rashford played 32 Premier League matches, eleven Europa League matches, including the final, three FA Cup matches, six League Cup matches, including the final, and the Community Shield.
“He had 53 appearances but if you want to take to the minutes of play, he played 3,068 minutes and if you want to divide that by 90 minutes of the matches, he played 34.2 matches of 90 min matches in 16/17.
“In 17/18, he played 35 matches in the Premier League, eight in the Champions League, five in the FA Cup, including the final, three League Cup matches and the European Super Cup.
“He played a total of 52 matches with 2,676 minutes if you divide that by 90, gives 29.7 matches.
"So with me, in two seasons, he had 105 appearances, 5,774 minutes, 63.7 matches of 90 minutes, including five finals, so the people thatis speaking about these minutes, I think they are a bit confused.
“Marcus Rashford is not Dominic Solanke, not Ruben Loftus-Cheek not Dominic Calvert Lewin, is Marcus Rashford, Man United player, with an incredible number of appearances and an incredible number of minutes played at the highest level in the best possible competitions.
“So Manchester United supporters, for you and just for you, to know what we are doing with Marcus Rashford, Luke Shaw, Jesse Lingard, Scott McTominay, that’s what we are doing here.”
Mourinho does not believe he has any perception problem when it comes to his treatment of youngsters, but stressed some experts and pundits are obsessed about him and Manchester United, and have vested interests in criticising him and the club.
He insisted Rashford is aware of the importance of being at Manchester United and his key role at Old Trafford going forward.
He continued: “It’s not a perception, some of the persons everybody knows they have double salaries, they work also for the clubs and of course they are not independent and they conduct things in the direction they want. That’s obvious, human, that’s natural, not ethical but I accept.
“The ones that wake up in the morning and the first thing that comes into their mind is Jose Mourinho, Manchester United, I feel sorry for them because there are much more interesting things than us and football.
“But for the Manchester United supporters is important they have the right idea of how things are in reality but the most important thing of all is that the kid is a good kid, a good player, knows what Manchester United did for him, starting in the academy, then Mr. Van Gaal support, then my support and the club’s support, new contract, new shirt, being selected for every single match.
“Since I was here, he was never one day out of selection because of my decision or because he was injured or suspended, he was never, never out of a selection.
“So he knows and that’s the most important thing, but the media is very important and it is very important Manchester United supporters know the truth, that’s why I’m going so specific about these numbers.”
