The November 5th meeting between Manchester United and Chelsea at Stamford Bridge is going to be a whole lot of fun for fans and general observers. It’s going to be extremely tense and acrimonious for the two managers. United boss Jose Mourinho once again fired shots at his former club and the man who replaced him there, Antonio Conte, today.
Conte also did his part by returning fire on Mourinho.
Mourinho has been trying to play mind games by taking swipes at Chelsea all season long and he continued that today. Following United’s 1-0 win at Benfica in UEFA Champions League play, Mourinho suffered a major injury issue with striker Marcus Rashford. (here’s a link to an update on that- the setback might indeed be serious)
Mourinho declined to discuss the injury and diverted the conversation into a subtle dig at Conte, claiming that he does not cry about injuries, like he believes Conte does.
“I never speak about injuries. Other managers, they cry, they cry, they cry when a player is injured,” Mourinho said.
“If I wanted to moan I could cry like the others for five minutes; (Zlatan) Ibrahimovic, (Marouane) Fellaini, (Paul) Pogba, (Marcos) Rojo…”
Of course, by bringing up these names, he is in fact, at least on some level, complaining about this injury situation.
Obviously, Antonio Conte was not named there, but the Italian responded by saying that Mourinho needs to focus on his own team and not worry about others.
“Do you think it was for me? If he is speaking about me, I think he has to think about his team and start looking at himself, not others,” Conte said after his side drew with Roma today in their Champions League group stage contest.
“I think that a lot of times Mourinho has to see what happens at Chelsea. A lot of times, also last season. (He has) to think about his team.”
Antonio Conte has certainly discussed his team’s injury situation on plenty of occasions this season, and no doubt the Blues have seen some key guys go down already with significant setbacks, such as N’Golo Kante and Alvaro Morata. They also began the year with one of their most important players, Eden Hazard, far from 100% healthy.
Has the Blues boss talked about too much, to the point where it seems like he’s making excuses? That’s all in the eye of the beholder.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now and Minute Media. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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