UNITED SPECIAL Mourinho planning to switch defence
JOSE Mourinho is set to resist partnering Eric Bailly and Victor Lindelof for the fourth match running when United face Real Madrid.
Lindelof started his second successive match in the Manchester derby win over City in Houston alongside Chris Smalling and the pair, who endured struggling halves, were replaced at the pause by Bailly and Phil Jones. Bailly and Jones were much more secure as United defended their 2-0 lead in the second-half but Mourinho is keen to experiment with United’s defensive set-up during their pre-season tour.
Lindelof has already played with Bailly, Jones, Smalling and Axel Tuanzebe and Mourinho suggested the Swede could be paired with teenager Tuanzebe from the start against Real in Santa Clara tomorrow.
“We played with two back fours, one in the first-half and one in the secondhalf,” Mourinho explained. “Just Valencia played a little bit more because he didn’t play much in the match against Salt Lake.
“But we played with two two fours and two goalkeepers and against Real Madrid we are going to do the same.
“I keep saying I don’t change my words because we win or because we lose, we are here to train and to give everybody minutes and this game we played Eric with Jones, Smalling with Lindelof. In the next game I will change, I will play Lindelof with another one and Bailly with another one, and in the quality of not just defending, but possession is good and everything is going okay for us.” ROMELU Lukaku has already scored twice on United’s pre-season tour - but rewind a month and it looked like he was heading back to Chelsea.
The Belgian was a primary target for Antonio Conte’s side but there was one big deciding factor that made Lukaku pick United - Jose Mourinho.
The Portuguese managed the striker during his spell at Chelsea and spent the summer calling Lukaku to persuade him to move to Old Trafford.
Lukaku spent the last few weeks of the summer in America with best mate Paul Pogba and childhood friend Vinnie Frans.
And Frans explained that while they were away, Lukaku took several phone calls from the United boss and that sealed his decision.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Frans said: “It was the final week of June and we were in New York. He was on the phone saying ‘Yes, boss,’ ‘OK, boss’ so I knew it was Mourinho.’ Mourinho did not stop with the one phone call and after his third chat with the 24-year-old, Lukaku decided he was on his way to Manchester.
Frans explained: “He just had one call from Antonio Conte. Manchester United came with three different contract offers and Chelsea did not present one. United wanted him more and that’s the reason he chose them.
“Romelu had it clear that he wanted to start pre-season properly with a new team.
“Chelsea kept waiting and waiting so he thought United have come with a good offer, Mourinho has great ideas and he was 100 per cent sure Mourinho wanted him.
“At first he was like ‘Let me wait a bit and see what other clubs are doing.’
“But United wouldn’t take no for an answer. After the second offer he thought ‘Hmmm, they really want me.’ Then it was a third time and it was ‘Hmmm’ with a few ‘m’s then the fourth came and it was ‘OK, I’m going to Manchester.’
“Pogba was talking up United but it was always going to be Romelu’s own decision.”