‘I should be called the head coach, not the manager’
Mourinho still unhappy over lack of transfers Praise for Shaw, Pereira and spirit of the team
Jose Mourinho says he should be described as Manchester United’s head coach rather than manager, his discontent with his club’s transfer business still obvious after victory over Leicester.
United failed to sign any of his centre-back targets, and there were some withering comments in the aftermath of the 2-1 win. “That’s football, that’s football management, I think football is changing and probably football managers should be called head coaches. I think we are more the head coach than the manager,” Mourinho said.
“Of course, it will be a difficult season for everybody. For us it will be a difficult season because I had my plans, and I had my plans for many months, and I started the Premier League season without a situation I thought. We have to wait until the end of November to understand if we can fight for the title.
“We played against a team that invest more than us. They spent more money than us, so in the Premier League we must get used to teams with players of the same quality that we have. Forget the name, the history, the shirt, every match is difficult. I think it’s the last time we speak about it, it’s over, finished, the market is closed and no more talk about it.”
Mourinho was more upbeat when praising the spirit of his side for claiming their opening-day win, especially as many of his starters last night had only been training for a week following the World Cup.
“I needed more changes, but I couldn’t,” he said. “It was not easy to manage the game from the touchline point of view. We saw lots of glimpses of the type of football we want to see.
“It was a good performance. In the circumstance it was very good because pre-season was very hard and we needed this fantastic spirit to manage this performance and result. Of course the boys with a proper pre season were in better condition. [Luke] Shaw, [Andreas] Pereira – they were comfortable.”
Mourinho said preparing the team for the first game was one of the most challenging he can recall.
“I don’t remember in my career being in so much in trouble,” he said. “I had players in difficulty and I wanted to make tactical changes, but I was afraid how players would react. I wanted to play [Anthony] Martial as he’d have been perfect to stretch the game, but I knew Paul [Pogba] and Fred would be in trouble. It was difficult but the players gave everything.
“I think we’ll have the same players for the next game – the injured players will not be back. But Paul will have nine days training, [Marcus] Rashford 11 days, [Marouane] Fellaini nine days. They will be in better condition.”
Leicester coach Claude Puel lamented his side’s missed chances, especially in the first half. “I think it was a good performance,” said Puel. “It was a shame to concede this goal at the beginning of the game. It was the opportunity for United to remain deep and close the space. We had chances to come back into the game. With all the chances we had we did not find the clinical edge.”