Manchester United have made five changes to their starting XI for their Premier League clash against Newcastle on Saturday evening, according to leaked reports.
Chronicle reporter Lee Ryder posted on his personal Twitter account what he claimed was the United team that will host the Magpies at Old Trafford.
It feature five changes to the side that lost 1-0 at Chelsea before the international break, with fit-again duo Paul Pogba and Marcos Rojo back, along with Marouane Fellaini, Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial.
They come in for Eric Bailly, Phil Jones, Ander Herrera, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Marcus Rashford.
#mufc team for today leaked: De Gea, Valencia, Smalling, Rojo, Young, Matic, Fellaini, Pogba, Lingard, Lukaku, Martial. https://t.co/PtD7NsrAR9 #nufc
— Lee Ryder (@lee_ryder) November 18, 2017
United manager Jose Mourinho appears to have decided to shake up his team after overseeing defeats in two of their three Premier League fixtures before the international break, against Chelsea and Huddersfield.
Rojo has not played a senior match since the Europa League tie against Anderlecht on 20 April, but the Argentina international made a welcome appearance for United’s Under-23s on Wednesday night.
Pogba has been missing with a hamstring injury since the opening UEFA Champions League Group A match against Basel on 12 September.
Mourinho said: “You can clearly see Manchester United this season before Paul’s injury and after Paul’s injury. It’s as simple as that.”
OPINION
It is little surprise that Mkkhitaryan is among those axed. He is a special player but a also horribly out of form one. The Armenia international has started 10 of United’s 11 league matches this season but he has been substituted by Jose Mourinho every time and has become a scapegoat for the team’s recent troubles in front of goal. It has not gone all his own way during a mixed spell at United since his mega-money transfer in the summer of 2016 and it is little surprise that, if as reported, he has been given the axe. Once regarded as one of the Bundesliga’s outstanding players during his Borussia Dortmund days, the playmaker has spent most of his time at Old Trafford playing in a tactical straitjacket. It hangs heavily, and his attacking threat has diminished. His 16 matches in all competitions this season have yielded two goals and six assists, but supporters are expecting far more.