All three, Eric Bailly, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Zlatan Ibrahimović have impressed the former Chelsea boss to varying degrees. My teams are very different to Mr. Van Gaal. I don’t speak about their players. “Other managers like to do that”, Mourinho said on Friday.
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His arrival would lift United’s status as a major player in the game after a few years of decline following Alex Ferguson’s retirement, with their image boost a fraction of what they think this single player could bring to their mix. For two years, they had some principles of play that are not mine – clearly, they are not.
While Mourinho didn’t clearly say that the club is interested in signing the French global, he did state that they’re in the market for at least one more player and mentioned the 23-year-old. “After two years there are things in their brains that are automatic and that’s hard to change”.
“Of course, we make mistakes and we are far from perfection, but they are giving everything to adapt, and step by step my team is going to be my team”.
In 2013, when Rooney was reportedly left “angry and confused” at Old Trafford, Mourinho gave him 48 hours to decide whether he wanted to move to Stamford Bridge.
But with one week to go before the start of the Premier League season, the manager did provide a timeline for the deal to possibly be completed.
When asked how he viewed Sunday’s game at Wembley in terms of its importance as a trophy opportunity, or a fitness exercise, he said: “Everything is important”.
“Our pre-season was odd – good for some players but not enough for others”. The number of matches was not enough.
“Paul Pogba is a Juventus player until he isn’t, officially, so we stay like this. We need to train and work and get minutes for the players”.
Leicester, despite losing N’Golo Kante to Chelsea and enduring a fairly underwhelming pre-season, have bought well over the last month and possess the capacity to expose United’s rear guard which, at times, looked easily breached during the 5-2 win over Galatasaray.
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“He will give the Man United midfield that power and that stature that I think they have missed for the last two or three seasons”, the former England global signed off.
