Jose
Mourinho insists Manchester United will get back on track at Watford in the
Premier League on Sunday after successive defeats ruined a promising start to
his reign.
United won the Community Shield and reeled off three consecutive
Premier League wins to raise hopes Mourinho’s influence had quickly revitalised
a team that stumbled to a fifth-place finish under Louis van Gaal last season.
But the size
of the rebuilding job facing Mourinho has been laid bare over the last week as
his arch rival Pep Guardiola led Manchester City to a 2-1 win over United at
Old Trafford before Feyenoord clinched a shock 1-0 victory in the Europa League
on Thursday.
United were well below their best against Feyenoord and another
loss at Vicarage Road this weekend would leave Mourinho with some awkward
questions to answer for the first time since he took charge.
The United
manager conceded the mood in the squad was no longer quite so buoyant, but he
is confident his players will put their recent struggles behind them this
weekend. “I think the game on Sunday will be an independent game. It is a new
event,” Mourinho said.
“It starts minute zero at 0-0 so I think it has nothing
to do with the previous two matches.
“But obviously when you lose matches the
mood, the feeling, is not the same. That’s normal. “But I think we are
experienced players and the players are very good guys and I know they want to
win and work, so that’s what we have to do.”
With the critics sharpening their
knives, Mourinho insists losing to a strong City side and suffering a narrow
loss with a much-changed team against Feyenoord is no reason for panic among
the United faithful.
“To be honest, I think we didn’t play phenomenal matches
in these two defeats, but in both I think it is a punishment for the team
because we deserved more than the results we got,” said Mourinho, who should
recall Wayne Rooney and Zlatan Ibrahimovic after the forwards were left out of the
starting line-up against Feyenoord.
“When we won the Community Shield and the
three Premier League matches, I was not on the moon.
“I was not saying that we
are a phenomenal team and we are going to destroy every opponent. “I always
said it was a very good start but I was never on the moon. I know that the
situation is not click your fingers and everybody is perfect.”
– Provocateur –
Even so, he could do with an influential performance from France midfielder
Paul Pogba against Watford after the world record signing’s latest
underwhelming performance in midweek. “I don’t like to individualise too much.
I think he was like the team. In the first half they were in control but were
playing half pace,” Mourinho said. “The second half was when they increased intensity
and that was when they conceded the goal.”
After locking horns with Guardiola
last weekend, Mourinho comes up against another manager he has antagonised in
the past in Watford’s Walter Mazzarri. Mazzarri coached Sampdoria and Napoli
during Mourinho’s reign at Inter Milan and the Italian got hot under the collar
when the Portuguese provocateur said of him that “a donkey can work hard but
will never become a thoroughbred”.
At the time, Mazzarri dismissed him for
talking “rubbish, so much rubbish”, but now he says he doesn’t hold a grudge
and plans to offer Mourinho a post-match drink on Sunday.
“I have a very good
relationship with Mourinho. Sometimes the press look at what happens in Italy;
the same with Antonio Conte and Mourinho,” Mazzarri said.
“It’s normal when you
fight for top positions that it happens but I have a very good relationship; a
strong relationship with him. “There is professional respect. Of course I’ll
invite him for a drink. No problem.”
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