José Mourinho is clear that the Europa League is not the “big dream” for his Manchester United players but the manager says he wants to win it, even though he is concerned that the competition could compromise his side’s Premier League title challenge.

United play Feyenoord, the Eredivisie leaders, here on Thursday in the opening match of the group phase. Mourinho left Wayne Rooney out of the 20-man squad along with Luke Shaw, Antonio Valencia and Jesse Lingard. After a first league defeat in the 2-1 defeat by Manchester City on Saturday, the manager said all were being rested before the trip to Watford on Sunday.

Wayne Rooney left out of Manchester United squad for Feyenoord trip Read more

He offered an honest assessment of the continent’s second-tier club tournament. “This is not a competition that Manchester United wants,” Mourinho said. “It is not a competition I want, it is not a competition the players want.

“It is a competition where we are and that’s the reality. Tomorrow is an important match for us. We must find that motivation that I found myself already and I have to pass that motivation on to the players because I know the Europa League is not the big dream of every big player.”

The last time Mourinho managed in the competition he won it with Porto in 2003 when it was the Uefa Cup. “You are not in the Champions League so you have to find your motivation in the competition you are in,” he said.

“My message to the players is with the players I bring. I bring a very good squad and I’m going to play with a very good team. I think that’s the message I want to give them. To lose, we bring kids – we instead give experience to kids, chances to [Axel] Tuanzebe and other great boys in the squad – but maybe that would be the wrong message for me to give to my players. We try to win the match and play with what we think is the best team.

“We are also going to play a very important game on Sunday. I am thinking of two matches at the same time but that’s just me. Not them. We have to look to the competition with respect. I think we want to do well in the competition and, for a club of our dimension to do well, is not to be out of the competition in the group phase. We want to win the competition. It is difficult to do it but it is simple to feel it and to say it. This is the way we want to approach the competition.”

Mourinho, who included David de Gea, Marcus Rashford and Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the squad that travelled, cited the 2-1 defeat at Midtjylland in the last-32 stage last season as a warning. “It’s a big club and the next match is always important when you play for Man United. The players must realise that. What happened last season for example in Midtjylland is something you don’t forget as a fan. Maybe you forget as a player. We have to make sure we’re not sleeping and losing before the match starts because many times you start losing before the match starts because you don’t find the right motivation and attitude.”

Mourinho believes that playing Europa League games on a Thursday will hamper United’s prospects of a 21st championship. “It’s more difficult yes,” he said. “Especially because you also have the chance to play on the Monday. But since the beginning of the season until we get the fixtures, we didn’t get that privilege. So when we play Thursday we were never given a Monday spot to have one more day. So we know that we are not going to have any kind of support for that.

“In fact the week we play Liverpool [17 October], Fenerbache and Chelsea, the gift we had was to play Liverpool on the Monday – but on the Monday before not the Monday after. So we play Liverpool on the Monday, Fenerbache on the Thursday and Chelsea on the Sunday. But my squad is good. I like my squad, I like my players. I have no problems doing what I did this time leaving three or four players and play with other people because they deserve this opportunity the way they work.

“We are not going to make a drama out of it. There is more reason to get a result tomorrow because if you go into the last game in December needing points to qualify it puts us in a more difficult situation. Let’s imagine hypothetically if we get three points tomorrow and three points against Luhansk at home, we can breathe and face the rest of the group phase in a different way.”

Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who has a thigh problem, and Phil Jones, who has a knee injury that rules him out for a month, have also not travelled

Manchester United (4-2-3-1, probable): De Gea; Darmian, Smalling, Bailly, Rojo; Schneiderlin, Carrick; Depay, Mata, Young; Rashford. Subs from Johnstone, Romero, Ibrahimovic, Pogba, Fellaini, Fosu-Mensah, Herrera, Martial. Injured Mkhitaryan (thigh), Jones (knee).

Feyenoord (4-2-3-1, probable): Jones; Kongolo, Van Beek, Botteghin, Woundenberg; El Ahmadi, Vilhena; Toornstra, Kuyt, Berghuis; Jorgensen. Subs from Vermeer, Hahn, Van der Heijden, Reith, Karsdorp, Knoester, Nieuwkoop, Kramer.

Referee Jesús Gil Manzano (Sp).