Jose Mourinho says Manchester United are chugging along like a Formula Three car
New boss says it's a racing certainty that the absence of eight key players was behind 4-1 hammering by Borussia Dortmund
JOSE MOURINHO believes his Manchester United team are chugging along like a Formula Three car as they prepare for the race for the title.
They certainly blew a gasket on Friday as they were hammered 4-1 by Borussia Dortmund in the first match of their pre-season tour of China.
And Mourinho put it down to the fact Dortmund have had their engine running for much longer this summer.
United's new manager said: “My thoughts are simple. I know that in pre-season the team that is at an advanced stage of preparation looks far better than the other team.
“It happens year after year. Some good teams lose to a big result. I think it’s too obvious.
“After 10 minutes we know that one team started training 10 days ago and played one match, and the other team started one month ago and played already four games. It’s so easy to see the difference of intensity and sharpness. For us it was very difficult.
“At the moment the engines are completely different. Formula 1 against Formula 3.”
Mourinho tried to ease supporters fears ahead of the season with a number of top players like captain Wayne Rooney missing from the starting line-up after playing in the Euros.
Mourinho said: “The reality is that even in this situation we have six players that stayed in Europe plus Smalling and Rooney – we are speaking about eight players not yet involved.
“Maybe today you don’t feel it but no Ibrahimovic, no Fellaini, no Martial, no Schneiderlin.
“Lots of them that are not here yet.”
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But he also made it clear that not everyone on the tour will be staying at United and certainly the likes of Memphis and Marcos Rojo certainly did themselves no favours.
Mourinho said: “Obviously there are some players here who are not going to stay in the squad, so the squad will be different than we are in this moment.”
United were 3-0 down within 57 minutes with goals from Gonzalo Castro, Pierre Aubameyang from the penalty spot and Ousmane Dembele after wrong footing Rojo.
While new signing Henrikh Mkhitaryan got one back for United from close range, Castro completed the scoring for Dortmund four minutes from time.
Despite the defeat midfielder Ander Herrera is convinced United are on the right course with Mourinho after two miserable seasons under Louis van Gaal.
Herrera said: “I think we know what we have to do. Every player is very clear.
“We want very aggressive players in the midfield, we want to attack and I think we are going to see a very offensive Manchester United but, of course, we need to be compact we can do that as well.
“I don't want to talk about the past. The most important thing is that things are happening now.
“We want to get the ball to attack and create as many chances as possible. You have seen we had some chances but we are just not fit enough yet.
“The most important thing is later because we are Manchester United and we have to win everything."