Devils in trouble ahead of new season

was in short supply for Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho yesterday but there was no shortage of sarcasm from the Portuguese.

He saw his side thrashed 4-1 by Liverpool in the International Champions Cup and was full of biting remarks afterwards.

He also confirmed Serbian midfielder Nemanja Matic will miss the start of the season.

Matic picked up the injury at the World Cup and had undergone surgery in Philadelphia, but Mourinho did not disclose the nature of the problem.

“I don’t know how long he will be out for,” he told the club website.

Mourinho could have done with Matic’s defensive capabilities as his side were well beaten by their fierce rivals in front of more than 100,000 spectators in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Swiss forward Xherdan Shaqiri marked his Liverpool debut with a brilliant bicycle kick that capped the scoring.

Sadio Mane had given Liverpool the lead with a penalty before Andreas Pereira equalised with a stunning freekick minutes later.

Substitute Daniel Sturridge made it 2-1 after 66 minutes before Sheyi Ojo scored Liverpool’s second penalty of the game.

Mourinho had already sounded off about United’s summer transfer dealings and revealed he expects only one more signing before the deadline.

The United boss claimed he submitted a list of five names, as long ago as March, to executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward, but is still waiting for all to be signed with just 11 days remaining in the window.

Central defenders Harry Maguire and Yerry Mina have both been mentioned but Mourinho does not hold out hope of two additions before August 9.

“I would like to have two more players,” the United manager said.

“I think I am not going to get two. I think that it’s possible I will have one. I gave a list to my club of five names a few months ago and I wait to see if it’s possible to have one of these players.”

“This is not our team... We started the game with almost half of the players who are not even going to belong to our squad on August 9. They will not be here.

“This is not our squad. Reinforcements, you mean players that I would like to buy, that’s another thing, but this is not my squad. This is not even half my squad, or 30% of it. So don’t look to this.

“As an example, Eric Bailly was not going to play and when he saw that (Chris) Smalling was injured in the warm up, he decided by himself that he didn’t want another kid on the pitch. It was not fair on Alexis (Sanchez) and (Juan) Mata and (Ander) Herrera.

“We are just trying to play these matches the best we can, and I think the boys did very well until the gasoline went. When it went, it was goodbye. So what did this game give me? Nothing at all.”

The United manager was also critical of Anthony Martial, who left the US tour to attend the birth of his second child on Thursday but has yet to return.

“He has the baby and after the baby is born – beautiful baby, full of health, thank God. He should be here and he is not here. Now we have Real Madrid and after that we have Bayern Munich and that is our start.

“I just hope the boys on deserved holidays take care of themselves a little bit and somebody wants to do what (Marcus) Rashford and (Phil) Jones do, which is to be back a little bit earlier to try and help the team because for the beginning of the season we are going to be in trouble.” – Agencies