About a month ago, Manchester United Manager Jose Mourinho said the roster he currently has, inherited from predecessor Louis van Gaal, would be quite different if the decisions made in the recent past were up to him. That’s typically something all managers feel in their first year on the job, but not everyone says it. In fact, most bosses likely wouldn’t say something like that publicly.
Chicharito is one of the three players that Mourinho mentioned back around St. Patrick’s Day. Today, Mourinho spoke of Javier Hernandez again, describing how he would fit in his system, and just how productive he would be.
Which is interesting, given how Chicharito has potentially been dropping hints on social media that he would like to return to Old Trafford.
“We have good players, they are creative players, they can create, but they are not the kind of guy that is naturally a killer,” Mourinho said.
“I give a simple example — in the way we play at Old Trafford, in the way we dominate opponents, in the way we play in the box, I think Chicharito would have scored 20 goals easy. Even coming from the bench for the last 10 or 20 minutes, he would have 20 goals.
“He is the guy that naturally the ball comes here, rebound here, rebounds there, boom, goal. The goalkeeper saves, he goes there, boom, goal. The cross is coming, he anticipates the first-post header, goal. I think Zlatan’s number of goals (27) is a number for every striker.
“I think all the others, and I am not just speaking about the strikers, I am speaking about the attacking players with freedom, they have to reach always reach a certain number of goals which, when added between them, means a lot of victories, a lot of points, but no-one has reached that level.”
Flashing back to what Mourinho said in mid March:
“Manchester United sold players that I would never sell and bought players that I would never buy,” Mourinho is quoted in the BBC.
When asked by the host who he would have kept, and who he would have jettisoned, Mourinho gave this response:
“I would never have sold Di Maria, Chicharito, Danny Welbeck — never, no chance.”
He did not say which players he wouldn’t have bought, but of course, you would never expect to him to do so. It’s kind of throwing guys under the bus. Although one could obviously infer, given how the season has played out, Mourinho would not have brought in Bastian Schweinsteiger and Luke Shaw.
Welbeck moved on to Arsenal, Chicharito to Bayer Leverkusen and Di Maria to Paris Saint-Germain.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times and NBC Chicago.com, contributes to Chicago Tribune.com, Bold, WGN CLTV and KOZN.
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