Of the players who did travel, Mourinho gave a lot of them a chance to impress with the Portuguese making 11 changes in the second half against Galatasaray.
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Jose Mourinho said in his first press conference that he likes players who are specialists rather than those who are versatile, and Blind falls into the latter.
World Cup victor Bastian Schweinsteiger – one of nine players reportedly told that they can leave the club this week – did not feature. It was only a few months ago when Manchester United were knocked out of the Europa League by Liverpool with consummate ease.
And ahead of the new season, the 26-year-old is willing to remain versatile to help earn himself regular first-team football. The Swede scored within three minutes of his first appearance for Jose Mourinho’s side with a trademark scissors kick against Galatasaray in Sweden. “But I believe if you are confident and work hard that you will get chances”, the former Ajax star went on to explain.
“I’m confident with my own qualities so I have to show it over and over again”. He added that this pre-season he is doing a great job and will continue to keep working hard. After a week of intense Pogba rumours, Manchester United finally gave us something to watch on the field, and played an exciting game against Turkish mega-club Galatasaray. Given Mourinho’s struggles in the squad management department, United can’t afford to start the Premier League campaign with such a bloated roster. I prefer Mourinho, in part because of Didier Drogba, who worked with him. His meteoric rise seems to have handed Mourinho a fresh selection headache, but one that manager would love to have. Among Chelsea’s many necessary transformations, he knows that the club must break out of its defensive orientation and play just as strongly the length of the field.
“I’m preparing for the new season now”, he said.
“We have something big going on”.
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“And from that moment we had a fantastic relationship, with a lot of respect”.
