Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho says he is looking for his side to put the frustration of dropping points in both of their previous matches behind them for the visit of Southampton on Saturday.
The hosts sit in second place in the Premier League, while Mauricio Pellegrino’s men will look to respond to their Boxing Day defeat to Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley.
Mourinho’s side have drawn both of their previous two matches against Leicester and Burnley and the Portuguese is looking for a similar performance with a different result on Saturday.
“We need to recover quickly before Southampton,” he said. “With so many injured players that we have the group is so small at this time, so it’s just about rest. For now in this period, it is just about trying to protect players.”
“I think we have played very well recently; probably the frustration is big because we played so well but we made mistakes that cost us the points in both matches.
“We played very offensive, in a very creative way and gave freedom to the players. We didn't score enough goals in relation to what we created.”
United are set to be without the likes Chris Smalling, Matteo Darmian, Anthony Martial and Antonio Valencia and their boss admitted that he is unlikely to field Romelu Lukaku and Zlatan Ibrahimovic from the start against Saints.
“Lukaku and Ibrahimovic. It can happen but for it to happen, they both need to be in their best moment and they are not. One is not because the situation in this team didn't allow him to have any rest and Zlatan is a man with an incredible injury.
“We did that against Burnley and we will do that in some more matches if we need to do it, but I think we really need them to be at their best level."
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