Manchester United defender Eric Bailly has been frozen out of the starting lineup since the start of April and Jose Mourinho has now revealed the reason behind it.
The former Villarreal defender has been left out of the squad in three of the last four matches and Mourinho says that he is giving the other defenders a chance to earn their place in the World Cup.
Ivory Coast are not going to play in the World Cup and therefore Bailly is under no pressure to play regularly right now. However, the likes of Rojo and Jones are expected to feature for their nations and therefore Mourinho has picked them ahead of the Ivorian in the recent weeks.
The Manchester United manager has revealed that he is not used to making emotional decisions but this is an exception.
He said: “There’s no situation, he is fine, no injury. He is one of our five central defenders and honestly my work is not about World Cups and preparing players for the World Cup or giving chances to players at the World Cup, but he’s the only central defender whose country is not in the World Cup. So if I have to make a kind of more emotional, effective choice to help my players he’s the one I’m not going to help. Rojo, Lindelof, Jones, Smalling, all of them are wishing to make the squad for the World Cup and Eric is not under that pressure. I try not to [make those sentimental decisions], I try to be a good team manager and that means a bit cold, a bit selfish, but I’m not as bad as that and I still have space for a little bit of feelings so when I look to the other four central defenders fighting for a position in the World Cup, I am giving less to Eric.”
It will be interesting to see how Bailly reacts to these comments. He is Manchester United’s best defender by far and he deserves to play week in week out.
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