Follow Federer example over plastic pitch says Mourinho

Jose Mourinho has told Manchester United’s players to follow tennis great Roger Federer’s lead as they kick off their Champions League campaign on a plastic pitch.

The Reds return to continental action tonight in Bern, where group-stage debutants Young Boys could have an advantage thanks to the Stade de Suisse surface. A number of United’s players raised their eyebrows when stepping out for training on the plastic pitch, with the added impact meaning United captain Antonio Valencia did not travel for the Group H opener.

Mourinho has let his feelings be known about such surfaces to Uefa but was keen to stress that it should not be an excuse, instead pointing to one of Switzerland’s favourite sons Federer’s versatility as inspiration.

“I don’t want to use that, especially before the match, as a possible excuse for a not very good performance,” Mourinho said of the pitch.

“Everybody knows it’s different but what I had to say I said last week in Geneva in the Uefa meeting that we had and what can I say? I can get as an example, we are in Switzerland, the home of one of the best-ever tennis players, and I’m pretty sure that the big man sometimes is not happy to play in such a surface but he has to play and he has to win.

“Everybody knows that he has a favourite surface, but he has also to win on the surfaces that he is not in love with, so we have to do it.”