Neville has always defended Rooney in recent years, having played alongside him at United, England and even coached the forward for four years at global level. He told Sky Sports, “Sometimes players disappoint managers”.
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Pep Guardiola enjoyed victory over his old nemesis Jose Mourinho as his Manchester City side won 2-1 at Manchester United in Saturday’s eagerly anticipated derby at Old Trafford.
“I am happy with my first week, with the work I have done”. He continued playing. It means a lot.
“There is no need to rush to push him and put him in the heat zone and put a lot of pressure on him because that can have the opposite effect”. I know it’s impossible for 90 minutes but I’m sorry, I will not negotiate that.
“I think it was 18 minutes in [when Juan Mata, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford warmed up]”.
Mourinho was a chastened figure post-match, reduced to blaming referee Mark Clattenburg for not awarding two second half penalties for what he felt was City keeper Claudio Bravo’s foul on Wayne Rooney and Nicolas Otamendi’s handball. And after, there was an outstanding goal from Ibrahimovic. I saw the game (again) yesterday we played against United to realise the things we made good and which things we have to improve.
“If the ball is played cleanly then a yellow card is issued but if the opponent is caught, exclusively or as well as the ball, a red card should be shown”.
Mourinho said United’s “bad” first half cost his team.
“It’s not the first time I play against a Mourinho team”, he said.
“It’s really good. We defended the set-pieces well because they are stronger and taller than us and we defended really good”. I am just trying to build on it. And what do I have? With his arrival having caused the departure of England’s number one, his debut was always going to be closely examined, and so in making such a costly error Bravo’s performances will now be under the microscope even more.
“Teams will try and exploit every weakness and City don’t have many so any little advantage will be taken”.
Jamie Carragher slammed the Frenchman’s display, comparing him to “a kid in the school yard” on Monday Night Football.
“So you never know the way players are going to react, especially when you don’t know them so well”.
The United boss revealed that he faced huge competition from “another big club” in completing the most noteworthy transfer of the summer. “But Ander Herrera came on and he was phenomenal in his attitude”.
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Monaco vice-president Vadim Vasilyev believes that both Manchester United and Chelsea “failed” Radamel Falcao, according to the Daily Mail.
