Jose Mourinho has hinted that he may employ a change of tactics at Manchester United this season.
The Portuguese coach was heavily criticised last season for a negative approach to games, but he has suggested that he may look to do things differently this season.
Mourinho though is well aware the time he has had with his players in pre-season has not been enough to get his message across and a new outlook will take time.
“The target is Leicester and the tactics to be changed in Championship Manager you can just press a button; in football you need time to work and players on the pitch to work and we didn’t have that until now,” said Mourinho at his press conference today.
“I told that during pre-season it looked like I was saying something absolutely out of order, something crazy. I repeat and maybe tomorrow the reaction is the same: Pre-season is difficult when you don’t have your players to work, it’s as simple as that.”
Brazilian pair Fred and Andreas Perreira are expected to start in midfield. The pair played together in the pre-season games against Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. Perreira made his debut for the club four years ago but he will be starting his first game for the club on Friday.
Meeting with World Cup Players
Mourinho will have a meeting after training today with the players who were on World Cup duty.
Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard, Romelu Lukaku, Ashley Young and Marouane Fellaini will all be in that meeting.
“They returned on Monday, trained for four days so you can imagine that they are not really fit and ready but we have needs.
“The list that I gave you before of the injured players is an important list and today after training I will speak with that group of players because everybody is different physically and mentally and I need to see how they feel they are and to understand to think how they can help or not help.”
Pogba has been heavily linked with a move to Barcelona this week. On Monday it was rumored that the Spanish giants had submitted a 45 million Pounds bid with Yerry Mina and Andre Gomes in exchange. But there has been no more update concerning the rumor.
It is said that Pogba’s agent Mino Raiola is at the center of the deal. He wants the midfielder to move for purely financial reasons and nothing related to football.
Injury Woes
Nemanja Matic and Ander Herrera could also both miss Friday night’s opener with Leicester.
“[Sergio] Romero, he had a surgery after his injury in the World Cup, Valencia, he was injured in pre-season, Marcos Rojo, he was injured in the World Cup,
“Dalot had a surgery in Porto by the end of April and is not yet ready.
“Ander Herrera was injured against Bayern, Matic got injured in the World Cup and had surgery in Philadelphia a couple of weeks ago. And I think that’s it.”