Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has confessed that he is glad his side were knocked out of the EFL Cup as it reduces their workload in an already busy month.

The Red Devils were stunned at Ashton Gate before Christmas as Championship side Bristol City picked up a 2-1 win in the quarter-final tie.

United have also struggled in the Premier League of late, drawing each of their last three games to drop down to third place behind Chelsea.

Mourinho admits that he will be happy to tick off games against Everton and Derby County in the league and FA Cup respectively over the next week, as his tired and injured players will then get a chance to recuperate.

"The fact that we don't play Carabao Cup semi-finals I think is a good thing for us because we have no players to play these possible two extra matches in January," he told reporters.

"Now we have to cope with Everton and Derby, after that we have an open space of nine to 10 days before Stoke and hopefully in this period we can rest, we can work, we can recover some players to attack the second part of the season. We finish the year in third in the table and we have to fight to improve our position."

United lost Romelu Lukaku to a head injury in their 0-0 draw with Southampton last time out, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Marouane Fellaini, Michael Carrick, Antonio Valencia and Eric Bailly are also on the sidelines.