New defender not needed, Jose Mourinho


Jose Mourinho says he is not planning to sign a new defender in January despite the departure of Eric Bailly to the Africa Cup of Nations.

United have been linked with moves for Southampton's Jose Fonte and Victor Lindelof of Benfica.

But, with Phil Jones, Chris Smalling and Marcos Rojo fit and playing well, Mourinho does not think he will need to do any business.

"No, I wait for Bailly," said Mourinho when asked if he would be shopping for another defender.

"I hope the three can control the situation in those eight matches.

"I will try to rest one in every game. On Saturday [against Reading in the FA Cup] I will rest one, against Hull [in Tuesday's EFL Cup semi-final first leg] another.

"We'll try to make a rotation between these three. We still have Daley Blind as the fourth, in case we need him to play there. We have Michael Carrick, so let's try."

United are sixth in the Premier League standings but are hot on the heels of the Champions League places after a good run of form over Christmas.

And Mourinho's only concern is the build-up of matches due to the fact his team remain in the Europa League and have a two-legged EFL Cup semi-final against Hull to contest over the coming weeks.

"I have 24 players," said Mourinho, who has revealed he will not consider selecting Morgan Schneiderlin or Memphis Depay while they are candidates to leave Old Trafford in the January transfer window.

"I cannot have 25 or 30. We have the right number of players.

"Is every player the same? No, let's be realistic. The squad is good, but not every player is the same.

"One thing is to play Antonio Valencia at right-back, another thing is to play another one. One thing is to play Paul Pogba and another thing is Paul Pogba not being available to play. It depends on the situation.

"What I know is there are teams without European competitions and we are in the worst European competition to play because, if you go all the way, you have matches and matches and matches non-stop.

"We have a two-legged semi-final against Hull. If we play the final, if we beat Hull, we would have to play against Manchester City later, because it's scheduled for the day of the final.

"So I hope we are going to have a very complicated situation. But it would be very complicated."

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