United shouldn’t be in this, insists Mourinho
JOSE MOURINHO feels his old club Manchester United will be one of the favourites to win this season’s Europa League, but does not believe they should be in it.
United’s 3-2 defeat at RB Leipzig on Tuesday night confirmed their exit from the Champions League but finishing third in their group means they have the consolation prize of second-tier European football in the new year.
All eight third-place Champions League finishers will join Tottenham in the competition, something Spurs boss Mourinho has previously spoken out against.
Yesterday he underlined his frustration at the process, while piling the pressure on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men.
‘Of course, now Manchester United become one of the top favourites to win the competition,’ Mourinho said. ‘The teams that drop down are always strong teams, teams that normally don’t belong to that level of the Europa League competition.
‘Manchester United are one of the top teams. The group was very hard, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester and Leipzig, very hard.
‘We all knew it was not going to be easy for any one of them and we all knew from that group that a top team would drop into the Europa League.’
Mourinho admits the quality of the tournament is enhanced by Champions League teams entering after Christmas but questions the sporting integrity of it.
‘It’s a point of principle, and if it happened to my team, I would feel exactly the same,’ he added ahead of tonight’s Group J finale at home to Antwerp, with Spurs already through to the knockout phase.
‘We cannot forget that, when you have eight new teams in the competition and eight teams that belong to another level and they drop to the Europa League, of course the level of the competition is going to improve. But from the sports point of view I think it’s not fair a team that doesn’t succeed in one competition drops to another.’
Mourinho confirmed Serge Aurier will miss tonight’s game with a knock, while Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg will be rested. Tanguy Ndombele is back after missing Sunday’s north London derby.