Leicester City Manchester Utd
Jose Mourinho has finally conceded that the Premier League title is beyond Manchester United this season – not the most startling confession, perhaps, but one which was followed by the Old Trafford manager expressing concern about the lack of “winners” in his squad.
In a fascinating interview ahead of this afternoon’s visit to defending champions Leicester, Mourinho analysed his club’s trophy-winning potential, making a startling admission when asked if he felt there were enough players with the experience of consistently winning on the big stage.
“No,” he said. “That is how you win things, step by step, or [by] not winning but almost winning or being competitive, learning how to feel the pressure of you have a final to play, a final to win, you have semi-finals, you are in the league, your opponent loses 24 hours later, you need to win to recover these points, to feel this pressure, to cope, how to live with this. It is something that of course we don’t have enough.
“And the ones with a history of success where that belongs to their natural habitat – [Wayne] Rooney, [Michael] Carrick, who else? Zlatan [Ibrahimovic], but [not] in our club. Antonio Valencia and not much more.”
Mourinho’s point is slightly disingenuous. After all, club captain Rooney alone has won five league titles – all with United – while Ibrahimovic has won the league in 13 of his past 15 seasons with six different elite clubs across four countries.
But Mourinho points out that the Premier League differs hugely in one key area – which goes some way to explaining why Mourinho, and David Moyes and Louis van Gaal before him, have struggled to continue the success enjoyed by Sir Alex Ferguson.
“That is the new football,” said Mourinho. “When previously you were speaking about Sir Alex’s time, this is not Germany.
“In Germany, Bayern Munich starts winning the league in the summer. They go to Borussia [Dortmund] every year and buy their best player. One day they go there and [Robert] Today, 4pm. TV Live on Sky Sports 1. Marcos Rojo and Chris Smalling are likely to start in central defence for the visitors with Phil Jones injured. Leicester are without the injured Islam Slimani, while Leonardo Ulloa has vowed never to play for the club again.