players deserve to rest after making major changes
to his team to face Tottenham on Sunday.
United made eight alterations to their starting line-
up from the team that edged into the Europa
League final against Celta Vigo on Thursday, with
Eric Bailly, Daley Blind and Jesse Lingard the only
players to keep their place.
Explaining his decision, Mourinho insisted he will
continue to make major changes for each of the
club's last three league matches up until the final
against Ajax in 10 days.
"The thinking is we have other good players, we
have people that need and deserve to play and
people that need and deserve to rest," Mourinho
said to Sky Sports.
"We are going to do this in this last week, these
last three matches we are going to try not to
accumulate too many minutes with any one of the
players.
"So we have lots of changes in relation to the last
match and in the next match we will have a lot of
changes in relation to this match."
Mourinho rejected the argument that United could
lose momentum by fielding weakened teams in
their last Premier League games.
He replied: "To be honest I think in the Premier
League lately the results are not the best - we lost
at Arsenal ending that unbeatable run we drew at
home to Swansea.
"So I don't think it is about results I think it is more
about the condition to arrive in Stockholm in the
best possible conditions to compete against a team
that today plays their last match and has 10 days
without football just to prepare the match.
"I want to give the players the best conditions to
try to go to the final."
And the United boss urged the fringe players he
has given an opportunity against Spurs to seize the
chance to impress him.
"I told them exactly that," said Mourinho. "I told
them I can't lie and say this is more important than
Wednesday or that Wednesday is more important
than Stockholm.
"They all know that our game is the final. But the
way they perform can influence me positively or
negatively so they have to get that as their main
motivation.
"If they are motivated I think we can be Manchester
United because, even losing like we did against
Arsenal, there are certain levels of performance and
attitude that we have to keep."
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