Mourinho furious at lack of time to recover from Europe

League kick-offs favour United’s title rivals Liverpool given 50 hours more this week

Jose Mourinho has been left angered and perplexed by the scheduling of the Premier League matches that follow Manchester United’s three Champions League group stage away games.

The United manager believes the way the fixtures have been chosen has left England’s other Champions League representatives at a significant advantage over his side in the Premier League title race.

Each of United’s European away assignments are on Wednesday nights, starting with tonight’s match against CSKA Moscow in the Russian capital, and are followed by 3pm Saturday kick-offs.

But Manchester City’s Premier League game at Watford earlier this month – which preceded their trip to Rotterdam to face Feyenoord – was the only other guaranteed fixture to be scheduled for 3pm on a Saturday following a Champions League Wednesday away match.

Whereas United have a total of just 196 hours of respite between Champions League away games and their next Premier League fixture, Liverpool have 321 hours, Tottenham 290, Chelsea 250 and City 219 hours, although that figure will increase if the Manchester derby in December is moved from its cur- rent 3pm slot on a Saturday to a later time or date.

United have a mid-afternoon game at home to Crystal Palace this Saturday, even though they face a 1,600-mile journey from Moscow straight after the match with CSKA. They are not due to arrive back in Manchester until around 4.30am on Thursday and have to train later in the day. By contrast, Liverpool played Spartak Moscow in the Russian capital last night but do not face Newcastle United at St James’ Park until 4.30pm on Sunday, which gives Jurgen Klopp’s side almost 50 hours more respite than Mourinho’s.

United face a similar situation following their Champions League games away to Benfica next month and Basel in November. United will not arrive home until the early hours on the Thursday after both matches and must then face Saturbest day 3pm kick offs away to Huddersfield Town and at home to Brighton respectively, which means just over 65 hours between fixtures.

Yet Liverpool’s Champions League match away to Maribor on Tuesday, Oct 17 is followed by a 4pm Sunday kick-off at Tottenham – 114 hours apart – and their visit to Sevilla in November is also on a Tuesday and followed by a 5.30pm Saturday kick-off at home to Chelsea, which means 92 hours respite.

Two of Chelsea’s three Champions League games are away on a Wednesday but they then have 5.30pm Saturday kick-offs and their trip to Roma next month is five days before they play United at Stamford Bridge at 4.30pm on a Sunday.

Tottenham’s game at home to Liverpool is five days after they travel to the Bernabeu to play Real Madrid and their other two Champions League away assignments are also on Tuesdays. City travel to Italy to play Napoli on the first Wednesday in November but they do not then play Arsenal in the Premier League until the Sunday afternoon.

Mourinho last season criticised the scheduling of United’s Europa League and Premier League games and felt little consideration was given to the demands on players. For example, the Portuguese was furious that United’s trip to Middlesbrough in March was scheduled for 12pm on a Sunday, even though United did not return until the Friday morning from southern Russia after a game against FC Rostov.

His hopes of a kinder fixture schedule this season have not been realised and he is struggling to understand why United have been put at a much greater disadvantage to their immediate rivals.