Romelu Lukaku has issued a staunch defence of Jose Mourinho, saying the Manchester United manager is a winner and nothing more.
Mourinho has come in for stick for his treatment of Anthony Martial, and the club’s younger players and repeatedly insisted that he needs more signings.
That has led to some questioning whether Mourinho is becoming a busted flush, but Lukaku rejects that notion emphatically.
“I get to see a total different image of him where he’s really cool,” Lukaku told Business Insider.
“People need to understand that we play this game not to lose it. We play this game to win. So when you lose, you get angry, you get upset.
“So for him, when he’s upset, he’s a type of person that you can really see that he’s mad or angry. So I think this is normal.
“This should be embraced because he’s a manager, he’s a coach that wants to win.
“And if you can’t deal with that, well, you know, don’t ask him questions because he shouldn’t hide this personality to give, like, a good public image.”
Romelu Lukaku will cut his post-season break short to join up with the Manchester United squad ahead of schedule, Jose Mourinho has confirmed.
Lukaku reached the latter stages of this summer’s World Cup with Belgium, only flying home from Russia after his national side’s third-place play-off victory over England on 14 July.
The 25-year-old is entitled to three consecutive weeks of holiday at the end of the season but, like team-mates Marcus Rashford and Phil Jones, will report back early.
United open the Premier League season at home to Leicester City in just nine days’ time and Mourinho is concerned that he will be without several first-choice players.
“Rashford, Jones and Lukaku – they gave to the group and to the team three days of their holidays. They’re coming back three days early to try and be available for the team,” he said following United’s 2-1 friendly win over Real Madrid in Miami.
“With the fantastic spirit we have in the majority of the players – I repeat, in the majority of the players, we have a fantastic spirit – we go with everything we have to the Premier League.”
Mourinho added: “Let’s look at it from a positive side and wait for [Victor] Lindelof, Rashford, Lukaku and Jones, which are going to be four important players for us, not prepared but they will be back and that’s the spirit we need.
“I think our first two or three weeks in the Premier League – Leicester, Brighton, Tottenham – I think these two weeks are going to be really hard for us because we didn’t prepare for that and that’s what it is.”
Even with three players cutting their breaks short, Mourinho is still without Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard, Ashley Young and Marouane Fellaini, all of whom remain on holiday.
Antonio Valencia, Mourinho’s newly-appointed captain, and Nemanja Matic are also set to miss the opener against Leicester through injury.
Mourinho has cut a frustrated figure during United’s pre-season, lamenting the absence of a number of his World Cup stars and the club’s lack of transfer activity.
As revealed by Goal, United have grown frustrated over Leicester’s asking price for Harry Maguire and are now considering an improved bid for Tottenham defender Toby Alderweireld.
The Portuguese boss had reason to smile against Madrid, however, as Alexis Sanchez inspired United to victory at the International Champions Cup.
Mourinho also praised ICC organisers Relevent Sports after admitting he would not have paid to watch his undermanned United side on their US tour following last week’s 4-1 rout at the hands of Liverpool.
“I just want to say once more what I keep repeating: Relevent are the best in the world at organising pre-seasons and I feel really sorry we couldn’t give them more,” Mourinho said.
“I know Real Madrid would feel the same and would like to have here a world champion like [Raphael] Varane. They would like to have here Golden Ball winner Luka Modric, but it is what it is and it’s difficult for every club with lots of players in national team.”