Jose Mourinho has revealed that Henrikh Mkhitaryan missed out on the weekend win over Newcastle because he has "many options".
United saw off Rafael Benitez's team 4-1, but fans were left scratching their heads at the absence of the Armenian, with Mourinho opting to play both Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial behind Romelu Lukaku.
Mkhitaryan ended up cutting a fairly lonely figure during United's training session ahead of flying out to Basel for Wednesday's Champions League clash, and Mourinho addressed his weekend absence in his press conference in Switzerland.
"I think that I am little frustrated that there is always questions about players who aren't playing or in their best form," he said.
"There are no questions about Martial or Chris Smalling, but always the questions are about people who aren't playing.
"In midfield there was a period with no Pogba, no Carrick and no Fellaini. When you have no options, you have to play the same players.
"In this moment, we have Pogba, Fellaini, Matic, McTominay, next week I can imagine you will ask why is this player not playing.
"Mkhitaryan didn't play against Newcastle because we had many options for that match.
"For weeks the question was why can't Martial/Rashford play together, when I do the question is about Mkhitaryan."