Ibrahimovic only joined United’s pre-season training this week but he has been impressed with the squad Mourinho is assembling as well as the methodologies of the Portuguese manager, who he is linking up with for the first time since winning the Serie A with him at Inter in 2009. “We have done a number of double training sessions, but I am not anxious about them being exhausted on Saturday as the reality is we have to work and are looking at the game tomorrow as one more training session because the players need minutes – we will need to recover from that too”.
Advertisement
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 30: Andreas Pereira of Manchester United in action during the UEFA Champions League Group B match between Manchester United FC and VfL Wolfsburg at Old Trafford on September 30, 2015 in Manchester, United Kingdom. Working hard, training hard and feeling good.
“I’ve started taking my coaching badges now so that will probably take about four or five years to complete”, Rooney said.
“Of course I’ve got a lot of experience playing football so I think it would be criminal If I didn’t try and pass that knowledge on so hopefully when I finish playing I can get some role as a manager or coach and try and use the experience I’ve built up over the years”.
Last time out Manchester United suffered an unimpressive 4-1 defeat to Borussia Dortmund in Shanghai, but Mourinho, although was disappointed with the result, paid limited consideration to the score itself – noting that his players were just not physically ready.
The 18-year-old trained alongside the likes of Bastian Schweinsteiger, Paddy McNair, Tyler Blackett and Adnan Januzaj – all of whom seem destined to depart Old Trafford this summer.
Cameron Borthwick-Jackson was also said to be amongst that contingent but he, like Timothy Fosu-Mensah, who didn’t train on Thursday, might simply have been left out of the squad to face Galatasary because of recent injury problems.
Rooney, for whom a testimonial against Everton will be held in his honour next week, also believes new signings Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Eric Bailly have improved the squad, with Paul Pogba expected to follow shortly.
Advertisement
Anthony Martial, Morgan Schneiderlin, Marouane Fellaini and Matteo Darmian have been named in the squad after being given extended holiday following Euro 2016.
