Jose expects ‘win and good performance’

JOSE Mourinho expects United to beat West Ham after a positive response in training to their penalty shoot-out defeat to Derby.

The Reds were knocked out of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night by the Championship side, three days after they dropped points at home to newly-promoted Wolves at Old Trafford.

The growing turbulence at the Reds was exacerbated by the ongoing issue with Paul Pogba, who criticised the lack of attacking football against Wolves before he was stripped of the ‘second captain’ role by Mourinho. The pair were then involved in a tense exchange during an open training session at the Carrington training complex on Wednesday, where Mourinho confronted Pogba over an Instagram post that was videoed during the Derby match.

Mourinho praised Pogba’s training performances this week and claimed nobody trained better than the 25-year-old Frenchman, who will start at West Ham.

The work Mourinho has witnessed in training has fuelled his confidence that United will record a fourth successive away win at the London Stadium today.

“First of all, if you want to be pragmatic, if you want to be analysing what sport is and what sport can be, Real Madrid lost 3-0,” Mourinho said of their La Liga loss at Sevilla on Wednesday.

“Barcelona lost five points in two matches, AC Milan drew against Empoli – a newly-promoted team.

“In football it looks like it is getting shorter and shorter and shorter the distance between the big clubs and the other clubs. That for me is an obvious situation.

“But I sometimes feel frustrated because the work we do and what we give to the process, I’m always expecting more.

“Especially I’m expecting more in terms of stability in the process. It looks like when we feel we are really improving and playing better and having a good run of results it looks like there is always a little going down in terms of the focus or the motivation, that I feel.

“That’s why when I come to you, you never see me speaking like I don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow.

“I expect to win, I expect to play very well. We work very, very well - especially Wednesday and Thursday - so tomorrow I expect a very good performance and I expect to win a very difficult match.”

Mourinho was also asked if he felt certain players were frightened by the expectation of playing for United.

“I don’t think any player is afraid to play for the club,” Mourinho stressed.