Mourinho relishes tough cup duel with Lampard
JOSE Mourinho insists he relishes the pressure cup competitions can create as he seeks to draw a line under another turbulent weekend at Manchester United.
The Portuguese criticised United’s attitude in a 1-1 Premier League draw against Wolves on Saturday and midfielder Paul Pogba risked inflaming tensions further by appearing to hit out at his manager’s tactics.
Pogba took to Twitter yesterday, seemingly lamenting that his “attack, attack, attack” comments in the wake of the stalemate against Nuno Espirito Santo’s men had been used to “create drama”.
United have an opportunity to move on from the past couple of days as they welcome Sky Bet Championship outfit Derby to Old Trafford in a Carabao Cup third-round encounter tonight.
Extra-time in this season’s edition has been scrapped and fourtime winner Mourinho explained his ambivalence at the idea.
He said: “I like the cups. I like the feeling of the knockout: you win you are in the competition, you lose you are out. I like that pressure and honestly I think fans also like it.
“In this moment you don’t even have the possibility of, after a draw, playing 30 more minutes — you go straight to a penalty shootout which obviously is a 50/50 situation.
“I think it’s good because no extra-time, no more extra minutes that we already have, especially the teams that are playing European competitions and especially when it goes to the end of the competitions — extra-time is really difficult.
“But I think it is a good advantage to the teams that are not favourites because a draw takes the game immediately to a penalty shoot-out and we know that it’s a lottery.”
In the opposite dugout to Mourinho this evening will be Frank Lampard, who enjoyed some of the finest moments of his playing career under the former Inter Milan and Real Madrid boss while the pair were at Chelsea.
Mourinho believes one of his
TONIGHT’S FIXTURES (7.45pm
unless stated)
EFL Cup Third Round
Blackpool v Queens Park Rangers Bournemouth v Blackburn Rovers Burton Albion v Burnley
Millwall v Fulham Oxford United v Manchester City Preston North End v Middlesbrough Wolverhampton Wanderers v
Leicester City Wycombe v Norwich City Manchester United v Derby County
(8pm)
old stalwarts is capable of making an impact at Derby, who have had a decade in the second tier but have been tipped by some for promotion.
Mourinho added: “I don’t consider them favourites because it is really hard to do that in the Championship.
“But I think when Frank goes
West Brom v Crystal Palace (8pm)
League Two
Yeovil v Milton Keynes Dons
Scottish League Cup Quarter Final
Hibernian v Aberdeen
Irish Premiership
Ards v Glenavon Coleraine v Ballymena United Dungannon Swifts v Crusaders
Irish Premier Division
Dundalk v Derry City (8pm)
there he goes with the intention of being promoted.
“He has experienced players, he has good players coming from good academies like Chelsea and Liverpool.
“They are playing well, they are in the fight for promotion and we all know that a fight in that competition will be for promotion, for play-offs and will last until the end.”
Meanwhile, Lampard is looking forward to pitting his wits against his former mentor at Chelsea.
Lampard, who is finding his feet in his first job in management, watched his Derby side climb into the top six of the Sky Bet Championship with a stylish 3-1 home win against Brentford on Saturday.
The Derby boss said: “I’m looking forward to seeing him. On a personal level, he is a manager that was hugely influential on my career twice, particularly the first time around.
“I respect him completely for that.
“It will be nice to see him and go up against one of his teams.”
He added: “You will find Jose Mourinho players being managers all over the place because he has been so successful.”
Lampard expects his Derby side to face a tough test regardless Under pressure: Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho of United’s relative struggles this season, adding: “It’s a very tough challenge.
“We know what we’re coming up against — a great Manchester United team who have been out together with quality everywhere you look.
“They’re expected to win, quite rightly so with the squad they’ve amassed there.
“It’s a challenge for us and we want to go there and do as well as we can.”
Despite the threats posed by the Premier League outfit, Lampard believes his players can perform well at Old Trafford.
He said: “If we put in the energy and the focus that we have then will make a good account of ourselves.
“You have to approach a game so that it won’t pass you by.”
Derby will be without Curtis Davies (hamstring) and George Evans (knee) while Tom Lawrence servers the final game of his there match suspension.