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Two key Manchester United players were missing as the team arrived at the Lowry Hotel ahead of their fixture against Fulham.

Eric Bailly and Anthony Martial did not arrive with the provisional squad members at the team hotel on Friday night, and are both doubts for the clash on Saturday afternoon.

French forward Martial was forced off in the second-half of the Wednesday night draw with Arsenal and Mourinho revealed after the game Bailly had started his first game in almost two months with an injury.

Chris Smalling and Phil Jones were billed as doubts by Mourinho at his pre-match press conference but have both been passed fit after they came through Friday's training session.

"I don't know," Mourinho said. "Training session, 11 o'clock will give us some answers. Smalling, Jones, Martial, Bailly, of course Lindelof and Alexis we don't even speak about them, but we need answers.

Manchester United squad vs Fulham:

"And for sure we are going to play with players not with the maximum of their [fitness] potential, but players who will put themselves available for the team like Smalling did last match, Jones at Southampton, players in difficulty who go one step forward to try and help the team."

Mourinho added to MUTV: “Still waiting for conclusions, still waiting for people like Martial, Smalling, Jones - people with these kind of doubts."

The Portuguese sounded optimistic about Martial in midweek when he suggested: "He [Martial] doesn't think it is an injury, he thinks it's a pre-injury, he was feeling tight."

Matteo Darmian, Antonio Valencia, Marouane Fellaini and Andreas Pereira were also unaccounted for as players arrived at The Lowry but trained earlier in the day. One is expected to be selected in the matchday squad and Fellaini was pictured on Saturday afternoon with his teammates.

Fred has been included in the provisional squad after he was excluded from the matchday 18 against Arsenal. The £52million signing has started just six league games and not figured in the last four but Mourinho clarified Fred is a victim of the team's defensive instability.

"Step by step," Mourinho said of Fred's situation. "You have also other players in other clubs that needed their time and you have some of them that played even less than what Fred is playing.

"I think Fred, when the team is defensively stronger and doesn't need in midfield people that is more worried in giving balance to the team than being involved in creation and attacking dynamic, the day we are stronger defensively, I think the horizons for Fred change completely."

United were more intense and aggressive in attack during the draw with Arsenal as Martial, Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford lined up in a front three. United have been outrun in all 15 of their league matches and Mourinho acknowledged that statistic as he noted the team's improvement.

"Even the numbers, the stats that for me are not fundamental, but sometimes they give us, they support our feelings, our ideas," Mourinho added. "Or sometimes a contradiction to it, but is just a confirmation with the numbers was the match where my team, the globality of my players, run more and run more with higher intensity, too.

"We press the ball more, put difficulties to the opponent, we were fast in our transitions. So we had that spirit, we had that mentality that brought our game to a good level, to a better level. There are special players with special characteristics and just to give you a couple of examples, [Ander] Herrera, [Marcus] Rashford are the kind of players that, even if their game is not phenomenal, that intensity, that desire, that sacrifice is always present. But I prefer to say the team as a team had that mentality.

"I know only two days is not easy [to recover], Fulham in the same situation as us but probably the way they are coming to play or try to play will not demand as much from them as us, but no excuses.

"I sat here a few weeks ago speaking about the December month and no defeats that's a reality. Good fights, good spirit, but just one victory against Young Boys and three draws and we need points. But Fulham is the same, they need points."

The United manager also paid tribute to Ranieri after his sacking by Fulham nearly two years ago by having the Italian's initials stitched onto his training top. Ranieri returned to management with Fulham last month and Mourinho declared him one of the two most important managers in the Premier League, presumably along with Sir Alex Ferguson.

"I want to be positive and think we are going to win," Mourinho added. "But if we don't, give credit to the people that deserve credit and the game is not going to be 11 against 0 it's going to be 11 against 11, good players in each side.

"I repeat the position: The points sometimes don't say much about the real potential of the team. So one of the two most important managers in the history of the Premier League, so they have the potential to come here tomorrow and to give us a very difficult match."

Confirmed United squad members

David de Gea, Sergio Romero, Lee Grant, Ashley Young, Diogo Dalot, Phil Jones, Chris Smalling, Marcos Rojo, Luke Shaw, Scott McTominay, Nemanja Matic, Paul Pogba, Fred, Ander Herrera, Jesse Lingard, Juan Mata, Marcus Rashford, Romelu Lukaku