Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has continued his habit of doubting his opponent’s veracity regarding star player fitness information this week. Heading into the Manchester Derby on Sunday, Mourinho said he doesn’t believe Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola’s claim that David Silva is a doubt for the big match.
Mourinho was asked whether any of his currently injured players would be ready to face Manchester City or not on Sunday.
“You want the truth or what do you want? You want the truth,” he responded, sounding a lot like the most memorable dialogue from Jack Nicholson’s character in the classic film “A Few Good Men.”
“The truth is Eric Bailly no chance for the weekend, Phil Jones a chance, (Marouane) Fellaini a chance, Zlatan (Ibrahimovic) a big chance and (Nemanja) Matic is injured but will play for sure. (Michael) Carrick no chance.
“I’m telling the truth, he’s injured but will play for sure. No stories of Lacazette or David Silva. All the truth.”
Well, at least we settled the issue of Matic’s fitness and status for this match, which was put in question yesterday.
Guardiola insisted in a news conference yesterday that Silva is a doubt for the match that could either ramp up, or effectively end the Premier League title race this season. Last weekend, Mourinho took a very sly swipe at his arch-nemesis Arsene Wenger, accusing him of gamesmanship and intentionally misleading his opponent on the health and fitness of Arsenal striker Alexandre Lacazette.
The comments irked Wenger enough that he fired back at Mourinho today.
Stay tuned, and watch this space, because the gamesmanship here for the big top of the table clash this weekend is just getting started.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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