Jose Mourinho looked visibly shaken by Manchester United’s 4-0 drubbing at Chelsea last weekend.
At a personal level, the Portuguese will have placed so much emphasis on his return to Stamford Bridge that he will not have taken the nightmare defeat lightly.
The thrashing highlighted United’s defensive problems, which run deep. In fact, it seems to have had such an impact on Mourinho that he could now be ready to axe three players who flopped upon the Red Devils’ visit to West London.
The Daily Mail have it that Chris Smalling, Marcus Rojo, and Daley Blind all can’t be certain of their futures at Old Trafford, particularly if United are able to sign Roma’s Antonio Rudiger.
Mourinho could, as fate would have it, be battling with Chelsea to sign the Germany international, who only didn’t move to the Premier League in the summer because he sustained a serious injury while preparing for Euro 2016.
Matteo Darmian is the other name mentioned in connection with an exit from the north-west, but that was already known.
With £30million signing Eric Bailly ruled out for two months, United needed to start thinking about revamping their defence, and that’s exactly what they’ve clearly been doing.
However, they need to go about bringing in reinforcements before they ship out any of the dead wood in their defence.
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