Sevilla manager Jose Luis Mendilibar believes that whoever replaces Marcus Rashford on Thursday night will be just as good as Manchester United's leading goalscorer.
United's star man picked up a groin injury on Saturday during the 2-0 victory over Everton. After expressing his anger with the Premier League over the Reds' tight schedule, Erik ten Hag confirmed that Rashford would miss out on 'a few games' but insisted that he would be back 'quickly'.
Rashford has scored 28 goals so far this season with Bruno Fernandes second in the Reds' goalscoring list with ten. United will likely call upon Anthony Martial or Wout Weghorst to replace the England international.
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Despite the duo's lack of goals, Mendilibar believes that they will pose a similar threat to Rashford. He said: "No it's not changed anything.
"For the players that will play in our defence, if Rashford plays or another opponent plays it might be different for those defenders, but it won't be any different for us. We knew about the injury at the weekend but at no point have we adjusted the tactics or how we play because whether he plays or not they have fantastic players.
"He has been playing as a lone forward but they have other forwards in that position. Whoever plays, we know that whoever comes in for Rashford will be just as good."
When asked about the tie itself, Mendilibar admitted that his team would respect United but that the six-time Europa League winners' 'history' was bigger than the Reds'. "[It is] my first game in the Europa League managing a team," he explained.
"I face up to it with an amazing willingness to play this game and compete in this game. The idea will always be to respect our opponents and try to win the game.
"I am convinced they will try and win this game too and our history, as Sevilla, is perhaps even bigger than theirs. We are going to focus on the game to compete and focus on winning it. We have to compete against them. We have to compete with the weapons we have. [They are] at such a high level, Manchester United, we know that. They have so many players and a big budget."
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