JOSE MOURINHO has accepted on more than one occasion his first season at Old Trafford has been an imperfect campaign.But he maintained yesterday that there they can still cap it with the “perfect finale” in Stockholm next month and he has backed Wayne Rooney to make a telling contribution.
The clock has been ticking down on Rooney’s Manchester United career as a succession of injuries and niggles have taken ever longer to shake off and Jose Mourinho has preferred other options.
The club’s leading scorer has not started a game since the draw against Bournemouth at the beginning of March and has not made an appearance off the bench since the match against West Brom on April 1.
Yet if it looks increasingly likely that the striker’s United career has just a month to run his manager believes it will still contain a glorious moment or two.
And he is hoping to be able to call on Rooney’s experience from the bench against Anderlecht in their quarter final second leg at Old Trafford tonight as he looks to move a step closer to the final in Sweden next month.
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“His experience and his know-how can be useful [against Anderlecht] and if he comes through the training session in a positive way I will select him,” said Mourinho.
“If we need a goal he can help us and if we need to keep a result, to keep the ball to keep control by having possession he can help us too.” Rooney has taken time to recover from his most recent setback – a double ankle injury – but his increasing spells on the physio’s bench and sidelines are a result of his age according to his manager.
“He had a lot of big problems – a few small problems a few times. When you get to a certain age – and I’m not saying he’s old – it’s a little bit more difficult to recover.
“It’s just that. But we have seven matches to play in the Premier League plus one, three or four in the Europa League so we can go to 10 or 11 matches.
“We don’t have many players. We need everyone we can. Hopefully he can be a help.”
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