I'm not happy with just fighting for fourth, I want to fight for trophies, says manager Jose Mourinho
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has insisted that his side are still fighting for a top-four finish in the Premier League following their recent 3-0 win against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.
The victory against bottom-placed Sunderland left the Old Trafford club just four points short of the Champions League spot with eight games remaining, including a game in hand over fourth-placed Manchester City in the Premier League.
Meanwhile, United, standing fifth in the league table, are in the quarter-finals of Europa League and their best chance of making it to the Champions League next season is to win Europe's second-tier competition.
Keeping the same in mind, Mourinho stated that his side would not stop "fighting" to finish as high as possible.
"We're still there, trying to put some pressure on to go into the last month still fighting. We're still fighting for the top four and we can win the Europa League -- although it's as difficult as finishing fourth. But we have to fight for it. I'm not happy with just fighting for fourth, I want to fight for trophies," Mourinho said on Sunday.
"We had lots of players that were not here today and the most important thing after the three points was to have no more injuries. The result was good. We resisted the results of yesterday when Manchester City and Liverpool won," he added.
The Portuguese manager also made the first move to heal his strained relationship with England defender Luke Shaw, saying the striker's performance was one of the positives during their win over Sunderland.
He also pointed out that his withdrawal in the second half was precautionary due to an earlier yellow card.
"He played really well, played solid. The opposition was not creating big problems but he was confident with the ball, went forward with some danger. He was reading the game well. It was a good hour for him. I thought about changing him at half-time because he'd been booked and I needed to be sure he'd be available for the next game but then thought that would be too harsh," Mourinho added.
Mourinho did not stop there and further hailed the team's overall efforts, saying that United displayed a solid performance against a `sad` team.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic's 28th goal of the season and impressive performances from Henrikh Mkhitarayan and Marcus Rashford, who scored his first league goal since September after stepping off the bench, stretched United's unbeaten league run to 21 games as they climbed to fifth.
"It was an important win and a solid performance against a team that is sad. When you play a team that is sad, if you score first the game is almost over because it is difficult for them to react. You could feel that negative feeling that is around a team that is close to relegation," the United manager added.
United will lock horns with Anderlecht in the first leg of the Europa quarter-finals while they will take on Chelsea in their next Premier League clash.
With a Champions League spot available for the winners of the Europa League, that is arguably their more likely route back into the elite competition and they face a quarter-final, first leg at home to Anderlecht on Thursday.
They then host Premier league leaders Chelsea next weekend.
Mourinho said Romero would play against Anderlecht.
"(De Gea) has a problem with his hip. When he dives he feels it a little bit. It's good for him to have a rest," Mourinho said. "It's good for Sergio Romero to play before Anderlecht.
"De Gea will probably be fit for Chelsea."
