Early Team News For Real Madrid v United

Jose Mourinho plans to rotate his Manchester United team for Sunday’s International Champions Cup match against Real Madrid, providing more minutes for those who need them.

In the comfortable victories over MLS sides LA Galaxy and Real Salt Lake, the manager made 11 changes at half-time to make sure that almost every Red in the tour squad enjoyed at least 45 minutes of action.

Then, during the following win over Premier League rivals Manchester City in Houston, Mourinho only made four substitutions at the break and reserved his other replacements for shortly after the hour mark. He interestingly changed three of the back four in the interval and plans to do the same against Real.

“We played with two back fours,” the boss said at his post-match press conference in Texas on Thursday night. “We played with one in the first half and one in the second half. It was just Antonio Valencia who played a bit more because he didn't play much in the match against Real Salt Lake. 

"We played with two back fours and two goalkeepers. Against Real Madrid we will do the same. I don’t change my words because we win or because we lose. We are here to train and to give everybody time.

“In this game [against Manchester City] we played Eric Bailly with Phil Jones, and Chris Smalling with Victor Lindelof. The next game with Real Madrid I will change. I will play Lindelof with another one, and Bailly with another one. Everything is going okay for us."

UNITED LINE-UPS ON TOUR SO FAR

Versus Manchester City in Texas
De Gea (Romero 46), Valencia (c) (Fosu-Mensah 78), Lindelof (Bailly 46), Smalling (Jones 46), Blind (Darmian 46), Herrera (Fellaini 62), Pogba, Rashford (Martial 62), Mkhitaryan (Carrick 62), Lingard (A. Pereira 77), Lukaku.

Versus Real Salt Lake in Utah
First half: J Pereira, Fosu-Mensah, Lindelof, Jones, Blind, Carrick, Pogba, McTominay, Lingard, Mkhitaryan, Lukaku.

Second half: Romero, Valencia, Bailly, Smalling, Darmian, Herrera, Fellaini, A Pereira, Mata (Mitchell 59), Martial (Tuanzebe 90), Rashford.

Versus LA Galaxy in California
First half: De Gea, Valencia, Jones, Smalling, Blind, Carrick, Herrera, Fellaini, Lingard, Mata, Rashford.

Second half: J. Pereira, Tuanzebe, Lindelof, Bailly, Darmian, Fosu-Mensah (Mitchell 85), Pogba, A. Pereira, Mkhitaryan, Martial, Lukaku.