Speculation has mounted that Mourinho could drop captain Wayne Rooney for the game as a result of his poor recent form, but Ranieri remains an admirer of England’s record goalscorer.
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“They are easy to understand, hard to play against”.
Mourinho also claimed he would not trade the success he has enjoyed during his career for the shock Premier League title triumph masterminded by Ranieri with Leicester City last season.
“If the fans have been disappointed with the last week, I understand completely but I am sure they will be behind the team like they always are”. We’ve played a few matches already where you could feel the differences in the style, differences in the approach and differences in the intensity.
Michael Carrick put in a man-of-the-match performance against Northampton and could have played his way into first-team contention while Wayne Rooney is expected to start despite criticism over his performances this season.
Mourinho said he believes there is a direct correlation between Rooney’s slump in form and some criticism England’s record goal scorer received after his performance in England’s 1-0 win over Slovakia in World Cup qualifying on September 4. “We like to say very good start to the season, probably better than we could expect, better than you were prepared for”.
“It [the issues] was a long time ago, I’m okay”.
“Every manager has a lot of jobs to do, it’s normal”.
But he has also dropped into midfield, and his awful performances were highlighted in a week in which United lost three successive games.
Claudio Ranieri is surprised rumours linking Danny Drinkwater with his former club Manchester United have surfaced. Describing the United manager as a “fantastic person”, the Italian dismissed suggestions there remained any bad blood between the two of them. We want to keep our players. He also revealed that he only listens to the people around him about his performances, “I listen to my coaches and my teammates, the people around me”.
He added: “Honestly, I think there was a Wayne before the Slovakia versus England game and a Wayne after the Slovakia-England game”.
“A team that works to a game plan during the week, you try to identify agreements between us and then individual mistake punishes you”.
“I have to focus, work hard, of course, and I’ve done that throughout my career”.
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“Maybe he has to offer me a good red wine”.
