Mourinho Vows To Treat FA Cup Tie Seriously

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is vowing to select a side strong enough to succeed in Sunday's Emirates FA Cup match at Blackburn Rovers, after regretting the time he "threw away" a tie as Chelsea boss.

Turn the clock back to February 12 years ago and Mourinho had a dilemma - could he play his strongest line-up in the FA Cup against Newcastle United with massive matches against Barcelona in the Champions League and Liverpool in the League Cup final to come in the days ahead? He decided he couldn't and, prioritising future fixtures, he fielded a weaker side and the Blues succumbed to a 1-0 defeat at St James’ Park.

Speaking ahead of the Blackburn match, the United manager admitted: "I threw it away. I gambled too much. I focused too much on Barcelona and Liverpool.
"It was good because we beat Barcelona and we won the final against Liverpool but the feeling that I had thrown it [the FA Cup tie at Newcastle] away was not good."

Mourinho now faces a similar situation with United: an away tie in the Emirates FA Cup followed by a European match and then the EFL Cup final. But this time he's promising to make a different decision at the outset of a tricky triple of fixtures.
"I'm going to change a few players obviously but I'm going with a good team because I respect the competition a lot," the Reds boss explained.

"If I lose, I lose because the opponent was better or because we didn’t play well, but I’m not going to throw it away. I go to Blackburn with respect.

"We’ve played already Reading and Wigan from the Championship so it's not new for us, the level of the Championship, the difficulty of the Championship. The lower league teams are getting better and better and better. And the fact we're away this time means I will go serious into this game.

"Manchester United demands that you go serious to every game."