The Manchester United fans here in the Transfer Tavern are hoping to see off Sevilla tonight and progress to the next round of the Champions League.

Jose Mourinho needs to mastermind a way to defeat the stubborn Sevilla tonight, who have big European credentials in recent times as our barman quite rightly points out. Between the two clubs, they have won the last four Europa League finals with Sevilla making it a hat-trick of wins in 2014, 2015 & 2016.

If United want to progress to the quarter-finals, then everybody in the team needs to be on their A-game according to our locals in the pub. Indeed, Mourinho is a master tactician in these circumstances like we have seen in the Premier League in recent weeks where United have got the job done on several occasions and are riding a little momentum wave at the moment.

They’ll be hoping to take this into the European stage, and our landlord believes if they stand a chance of progressing then a big call in dropping Juan Mata has to happen. With that in mind, he takes a look at two players that could potentially do a better job than the Spaniard…

Jesse Lingard

United need directness with pace to break away and hit Sevilla fast and impactful. In Jesse Lingard, Mourinho has a player he trusts to do the job set out before him as we’ve seen several times before this season.

Lingard is having a great season so far and offers both options in attack as well as defensively, which is going to prove crucial against Sevilla tonight. Mourinho usually opts for the England man on the big occasions, and we wouldn’t be surprised in the Tavern to see him in the starting eleven tonight.

Marcus Rashford

After his brace against rivals Liverpool at weekend, it may be a foolish move not to start with Marcus Rashford while his confidence is high. The England striker needs to start getting more minutes under his belt in preparation for the summer World Cup, and if he keeps up his short current form Mourinho surely can’t bench him.

Rashford, like Lingard, offers the pace for the counter-attack but has a superior finishing eye for goal.