Manchester United have axed Henrikh Mkhitaryan for their Premier League clash against Newcastle United on Saturday evening, according to a reliable journalist.
Independent chief football writer Miguel Delaney reported on his personal Twitter account on Friday night that the playmaker has been dropped from the starting XI for the Old Trafford fixture.
Delaney also stated that fit-again pair Paul Pogba and Marcos Rojo are immediately reinstated in the team after lengthy absences, while there is also a recall for Jesse Lingard.
Told that Pogba and Rojo likely to go straight back into the United staring line-up tomorrow, Mkhitaryan dropped, Lingard to come in.
— Miguel Delaney (@MiguelDelaney) November 17, 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
Mkkhitaryan 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.