Jose Mourinho promised to play the kids at Old Trafford this afternoon, and that's precisely what he has done. Wayne Rooney is included from the start, doing his bit to raise the average age of a starting team featuring Joel Pereira, Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Josh Harrop and Demetri Mithcell.
The Man United manager said he would rotate heavily ahead of the Europa League final, given the fatigue in his squad: this game is their 63rd of the season. Mourinho pledged these changes after the 0-0 draw with Southampton on Wednesday, after which Graeme Souness criticised Mourinho for his complaining about United's fatigue. Souness said that such complaints become a self-fulfilling prophecy: the manager speaking about tiredness gives the players an excuse for underperformance.
Later, Souness (the man who signed Ali Dia) said that United "had their pants pulled down" over the fee for Paul Pogba.
Mourinho used his final set of programme notes of the season to take a dig at Souness over the criticism, drawing attention to Souness' managerial record in the process. He did it all with some characteristic passive aggression: he didn't use Souness' name directly at all, but it was clear whom he was talking about.
I have seen in the football media that certain pundits cannot understand why our players are tired.
A pundit is not honest if they cannot forget their colours or if they try to hide the truth from their audience. It’s not my fault if their managerial career was very poor.
Our main golascorer, Zlatan, has had major knee surgery, as has a top central defender in Marcos Rojo. Luke Shaw has had surgery at a time when he hit his best form. Phil Jones and Chris Smalling had important injuries at the same time.
Our postponed fixtures accumulated to the last month of the season, and in the last two months of the season we have played 16 matches. Don’t we deserve respect for that? Didn’t we deserve to be analysed in this context?
Didn’t this team fight every second of every match? Didn’t this team win the Community Shield and League Cup? Didn’t this team beat the club record of 25 Premier League matches unbeaten in the same season? Isn’t this team going to play a European final next Wednesday?
I have to stand up and say that my boys deserve all my respect, and with my boys I will walk to Stockholm.
United have nothing to play for this afternoon, although Palace do: victory could earn them up to £11 million.
See Also: Watch: Stunning Scenes As Celtic Organise Stadium-Wide Tifo In Honour Of Lisbon Lions
