Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has hailed the club’s near perfect pre season tour of the United States and also commends his players and Real Madrid counterpart, Zinedine Zidane, for their hard work.
The Red Devils defeated Real Madrid 2-1 on penalties in the early hours of Monday (Nigerian time) at the Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, California after their International Champions Cup clash had ended 1-1 in regulation time and required penalties to determine the winners of the match.
United have now won all their four matches in their pre season friendlies-LA Galaxy, Real Salt Lake, Manchester City and Madrid.
“Good training (for us). It was a very good first half against a top Real side,” Mourinho told MUTV.
“I think we lost motivation to play against their young players. We lost intensity, we lost appetite. I think the boys who played in the second half, they were disappointed not to play against Real Madrid’s best players and best team.
“The second half was not good but overall I am happy again.”
Mourinho informs that the injury sustained by Ander Herrera is worrisome but hopes the Spaniard will not suffer lasting injury setback as a result.
“I just feel sorry for one more injury which I hope is not important. For Ander (Herrera) to come off after 10 minutes, it has to be painful.
“But sometimes painful doesn’t mean there is a real problem, so let’s wait.”
The Portuguese admits that he didn’t select his best penalty takers for the shootout.
“Yeah, three out of 10 (were scored). But it’s pre-season and to be honest, I didn’t choose my best penalty-takers,” the former Real Madrid manager adds.
On the promising performance of Anthony Martial who provided the assist for Jesse Lingard’s first half goal, Mourinho urges the forward to sustain the tempo.
“Obviously we want more consistency in his talent. I think today was positive for him, that is why I left him for 90 minutes on the pitch.
“He was enjoying it, he was trying new things, and it is important in these friendly matches to try new things, which he did. That is important for his confidence.
“Young players still need time to learn and time to improve. It is also his personality. I can say that he is training better than before, he is working harder than before, his ambition is to try to bring his talent in a consistent way.”
Mourinho also has positive words for Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane and stresses he is not surprised by the successes recorded by the former Real Madrid superstar so far.
“It is no surprise. It is a great period for Real Madrid to win so many titles, they have amazing individual quality and an amazing relationship with the ball. You cannot argue with that. In terms of their individual relationship with the ball the quality is absolutely amazing,” he says.
‘The Special One’ sees no problems in the trip to the USA and believes the short travels within the country and travels to Norway and Ireland for the final lap of United’s pre season commitments will not result in jet lags for his team.
“It is not a concern (to have a post-match flight again). For us there is not a lot of travel.
“We have organised the pre-season so we are based in LA for 11 days, which is fantastic.
“We are always in the same hotel, the same training ground. The flights are quite short flights. Now we are on our way back home.
“We are here and now we go to DC, which is halfway home almost. In terms of jet lag it is halfway home.
“These next three days in DC are not a problem. After that we have two more matches to play in Norway and Ireland, travelling on the same day with short flights. I am really happy with our pre-season.
“If Mata and Ander are not long-term problems then I would say it is perfect,” Mourinho concluded.
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