Manchester United manager José Mourinho has revealed that defender Eric Bailly picked up a injury on international duty, as the Ivorian was missing from the side for Saturday's 0-0 draw with Liverpool. 

Didn't have that many options 

Mourinho will have been looking to continue where his side left off before the international break, with The Red Devils looking to continue their unbeaten start to the campaign and leapfrog over Manchester City at the top of the table even if it was for a couple of hours. 

United managed to keep their unbeaten record intact but it certainly wasn't a pretty performance against Jürgen Klopp's men, Mourinho was hit with the loss of Marouane Fellaini during the international break and it proved he wasn't the only casualty. 

Marcus Rashford managed to make the bench despite picking up a slight niggle and was brought on the 66th minute, Bailly missed out all together and Mourinho confirmed their absences stating that he was lacking in "many options". 

"I don’t think we have many options," the boss told Sky Sports. "Fellaini was injured with the national team, Bailly was injured with the national team and Rashford was injured with the national team. We don’t have many options." 

"I never complain about that," he stated. "I was just mentioning it to you because the next question is maybe why is Rashford not playing? Why is Bailly not even on the bench?" 

"But, okay, since the moment we know the players we have available," Mourinho added. "We thought about the match and we thought about our options and we made these decisions." 

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Happy to take the point 

United's vast attacking certainly didn't shine through on Merseyside registering six shots to Liverpool's 18, but it was the heroic display of the defence and especially David De Gea which saved United's point and unbeaten record. 

The goalkeeper produced another world-class save to prevent the best chance of the game as he deflected Joel Matip's effort away from danger with his boot, and the keeper stated that the side were "happy with the point" against a "difficult team". 

“I think we defended really well today," the goalkeeper told manutd.com. "The same as the last games, and we needed to be at that level in the defensive part."

"Romelu Lukaku had a good opportunity to score but he missed the chance," the Spaniard stated. "We need to keep doing well."

"It’s away from home at Anfield – a difficult stadium and a difficult team," De Gea concluded. "So we’re happy with the point.”

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Danial  Kennedy
Award-winning sports journalism graduate. Currently studying a PR Masters at the University of Sunderland. Writing for VAVEL since August 2014. Twitter - @ddkjournalism.