Man Utd boss Jose Mourinho goes full Rafa Benitez in press conference rant

Rashford bagged two goals for England during the international break, leading to pundits questioning his lack of game time at Manchester United.

But Mourinho has hit back at his critics ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Watford, a game Rashford will miss through suspension.

The United boss reeling off a list of statistics in this morning’s press conference in an effort to disprove “compulsive lies” about his handling of the 20-year-old striker.

It was reminiscent of Rafa Benitez’s infamous facts rant back in 2009 when the then-Liverpool boss read prepared stats intended for former United manager Sir Alex Ferguson.

“Speaking about Marcus, I think I can expect that Sunday I'm going to be highly criticised for not playing him tomorrow,” he said.

"Because some of the boys are really obsessed with me and some of them have a problem with some compulsive lies.

“So I can expect that Sunday some of them will wake up in the morning and the first thing they think of is Jose Mourinho.

“So I can imagine on Sunday I am going to be criticised for not playing Marcus but it's not my fault, he's suspended, so probably you should remind them he is suspended and cannot play.
“So I'm going to do something, not for you, but the United fans, and I think I hold myself to the United fans and so for them I am going to spend two mins with you.

“In 2016-17, Marcus Rashford played 32 Premier League matches, 11 Europa League matches, including the final, three FA Cup matches, six League Cup matches, including the final, and the Community Shield.

“He had 53 appearances, but if you want to take to the minutes of play, he played 3,068, and if you wan to divide that by 90-minute matches, he played 34.2 matches of 90-minute matches in 2016-17.
“In 2017-18, he played 35 Premier League matches, eight in the Champions League, five in the FA Cup, three League Cup matches and the European Super Cup final.

“He played a total of 52 matches with 2,676 mins, and if you divide that by 90, it gives you 29.7 matches.

“So with me, in two seasons, he had 105 appearances, 5,774 mins, 63.7 matches of 90 minutes, including five finals, so the people speaking about these minutes, I think they are a bit confused.
“Marcus is not [Liverpool striker] Dominic Solanke, not [Chelsea midfielder] Ruben Loftus-Cheek, not [Everton forward] Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

“He’s Marcus Rashford, a Manchester United player, with an incredible number of appearances and an incredible number of minutes played at the highest level in the best possible competitions.

“So Manchester United supporters, for you and just for you, to know what we are doing with Marcus, Luke Shaw, Jesse Lingard, Scott McTominay, that's what we are doing here.”