Jose Mourinho: 'Manchester United desperate for a break'

Manchester United head coach Jose Mourinho has confessed that he is glad his side were knocked out of the EFL Cup as it reduces their workload in an already busy month.

  "The fact that we don't play Carabao Cup semi-finals I think is a good thing for us because we have no players to play these possible two extra matches in January," the Special One told reporters. "Now we have to cope with Everton and Derby, after that we have an open space of nine to 10 days before Stoke and hopefully in this period we can rest, we can work, we can recover some players to attack the second part of the season. "We finish the year in third in the table and we have to fight to improve our position."