Jose Mourinho Hints At Romelu Lukaku, Rashford Partnership

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has hinted Romelu Lukaku and Marcus Rashford could be unleashed as an attacking duo next season.

Rashford scored twice in the first half of United’s 5-2 win over LA Galaxy in California on Saturday with Lukaku taking his place half-time to make his debut.

Mourinho, though, has suggested he could use the pair together during their tour of the United States and in the Premier League next season.

And he insisted Rashford will play an important role despite Lukaku’s arrival from Everton in a £75 million deal, and backed the teenager to score more than the 11 goals he got last season.

He said: “Today Rashford was in a different team than Lukaku but we will also try both in the same team which I think can also work.

“Last season in this period everyone was saying with me it would be difficult for Marcus to play but he was one of the top with appearances of the team.

“He played a lot in different positions which is good for his evolution and played the Europa League important matches.

“He’s learning a lot, a great professional, great attitude. Last season in a period he was not scoring goals and missing a lot of chances which was not a drama because that’s part of the evolution.

“We know he is going to score more goals than last season.”

Mourinho trialled a back three against LA Galaxy with Chris Smalling, Phil Jones and Daley Blind starting the game at centre-half.

United used the same system against Rostov in the Europa League last season. And the United manager hinted he could use it more often next term.

He added: “We trained five days, in this five days we train two days in the relation to this back system, the improvements are in relation to four hours of work so I couldn’t expect much better.

“It’s something we have to keep working on in case during the season we decide to play three at the back. We did it twice against Rostov and maybe we want to do it more times.”