Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has revealed Ander Herrera was left out of the squad for Tuesday night's win over Basel for tactical reasons.
The Spaniard made his first Premier League start of the season in Saturday's draw at Stoke, but failed to make the 18 for the 3-0 win against the Swiss side, reports the Manchester Evening News.
Nemanja Matic and Paul Pogba started in the engine room, while Michael Carrick and Marouane Fellaini were preferred to Herrera on the bench.
Fellaini replaced the injured Paul Pogba after 19 minutes and scored the opener before assisting Marcus Rashford's late strike to intensify the competition in midifeld ahead of Pogba's probable absence against Everton on Sunday.
Carrick did not feature in United's three Premier League matchday squads in August and has made the bench in the last two games. Mourinho suggested United's squad members had to be prepared for disappointment.
"No reasons to be out," Mourinho said of Herrera. "We are playing only with two midfield players, with Matic and Pogba, who are playing really well and without reason to change, the only match we decided to play with three he played, today we went back to two again and I had on the bench Carrick and Fellaini, which were also important players last season.
"We have a group of players who must be ready to play and not to play. Ashley Young was not on the bench in the last match and today he started the match and played 90 minutes and the next match you can have another surprise of some player you think is going to play and is not going to play.
"It's the squad we have, I have to use the players and that's the life in clubs with squads of quality."
Mourinho felt Basel adopted the 'trendy' tactic of a back five but insisted the scoreline might have flattered United.
"I think they follow the trendy tactic of five in the back that some of your colleagues like to call three but they are totally wrong, it is five," he said to a Swiss journalist. "They were very well organised, they tried to close every space and then after the 2-0, the coach changed to four in the back and gave more freedom to [Michael] Lang, but more players in attacking areas.
"They understood they changed their mentality and approach and then they showed their qualities they also have. I think the 3-0 is a little bit against the grain of the game in this period.
"But as I was saying before in the group phase any team can take points from the other team."