HERRERA: JOSE HAS A RIGHT TO BE MOODY
Midfielder insists ‘positive’ Mourinho is in a difficult position
ANDER HERRERA has defended Jose Mourinho and claimed the moody Manchester United boss is right to be frustrated with the US tour.
Mourinho has bemoaned the lack of players available, with 15 of his first-team squad absent through injury or holiday.
And Spanish midfielder Herrera said Mourinho had every right to be angry with his current predicament.
“It’s true and I agree with him,” said Herrera (above with Juan Mata, Andreas Pereira, David De Gea and Joel Pereira). “It must be difficult for him to work with a group of players, maybe 50 per cent of whom he’s not going to have in the future.
“You can’t really work tactically, because the guys you’re working with could be leaving, going on loan or going to the second team, so it’s difficult for him.
“It’s also difficult for us, but we knew in advance before coming that it was going to be like this. This is my fifth pre-season here and it’s the most strange one so far.”
Mourinho has cut a downcast figure throughout United’s five-game US trek, which concluded with last night’s match against Real Madrid in Miami.
But Herrera claimed Mourinho showed a different side to his persona behind the scenes, and said the United boss wants the best for his players and pushes them to shine. “I cannot talk about how he is with you guys, because I never see that,” Herrera said. “I can just say that with us he’s very positive, he wants us to fight for the titles, he wants us to perform to our best, he wants us to work as hard as possible.
“But probably he’s not frustrated about the club or the market, he’s probably frustrated because he’s not able to work with the players that he’s going to have for the season. Other teams are able to do that. For example, we played against Liverpool and they had maybe 80 per cent of their squad ready, Milan maybe 90 per cent of their squad and us probably 50 per cent of the squad, because some of the players are away.
“Also you have the situation with Matteo Darmian, he’s playing now every game but probably he’s going to leave, and then some kids, they’re probably going on loan. So I can understand the manager and if I put myself in his position, I would be the same. You want to fight for the titles but you don’t have the team with you to work for it right now.”
United host Leicester in the opening game of the new Premier League season a week on Friday, with Herrera claiming the Reds would have preferred an extra week to prepare for the first match.
“The most intelligent thing would have been to postpone the start of the season by maybe one week,” said Herrera. “We’re suffering the most, because we had the most players in the semi-finals and final of the World Cup.
“It’s really difficult to prepare the team because the manager likes to work tactically and he’s not able to do it. The work we are not able to do now, we will do in the last three or four days before the start of the season.”