Mourinho's Mistakes Sends Manchester United Out Of Champions League

The Manchester United manager made huge calls in his selection and had to watch as his side were outclassed by a limited Sevilla team.

When Jose Mourinho gets it right, he seems like a master and results like Saturday’s 2-1 win over Liverpool can happen. But the Manchester United manager will long be questioned over his decision to start Marouane Fellaini over Paul Pogba as they were dumped out of the Champions League by Sevilla on Tuesday at Old Trafford.

Fellaini, who had not started in almost four months due to a knee injury, was given the nod over Pogba, who despite having picked up a training-ground knock last Friday had recovered sufficiently to play some part in Monday’s pre-game session.

The result was United turning in an utterly abysmal showing as Wissam Ben Yedder came off the bench to strike twice in the second half and hand the Spanish side a 2-1 aggregate victory.

Romelu Lukaku pulled one back but there was never going to be a miracle recovery. United’s first home Champions League knockout fixture in four years was also their last for at least 12 more months, and the inquiries can start now. How on earth did United get humiliated by such a limited Sevilla outfit?

Mourinho said in the build-up that this game and the FA Cup quarter-final against Brighton on Saturday were far bigger fixtures than the win over Liverpool, but that begs the question as to why he took a gamble on a half-fit, ill-equipped Fellaini and pushed Rashford out of the position from which he thrived just three days ago.