Jose Mourinho held his weekly press conference today, ahead of the trip to London to face West Ham United tomorrow. Mourinho took questions about why he stripped Paul Pogba of his status as alternate captain this week and the video of the training ground confrontation between himself and Pogba which went crazy viral.
Mourinho still maintains that he has a good relationship with Pogba, but he did say that no one man is bigger than the club. After being left out of the match day squad entirely in the League Cup loss to Derby County, Mourinho has said that Pogba will start for United in London tomorrow.
He also said that Pogba has been the best player in training the past three days. Here is the video below:
“He’s a player like the others, no player is bigger than the club and if I’m happy with his work he plays, if I’m not happy he doesn’t play,” Mourinho said.
“I’m happy with his work this week, really happy. Manchester United is bigger than anyone and I have to defend that.”
Mourinho was evasive when asked about the tense exchange on the training ground:
“I cannot tell you [what it was about]. The training session was open, you had some cameras with some potential to get some of the words, maybe you have to change the potential if you want to know everything that is said because I’m not going to comment, it was a conversation.”
There have been claims that the incident was staged, due to its transpiring during the 15 minutes of training that is open to media taping, but the Portugese dismissed this theory. He also get testy and defensive, maintaining that the media is making much ado about nothing here.
“I have to train as always, I don’t care about the cameras,” he said.
“I think for you [the media] was amazing because you made a story, an incredible story, out of 15 minutes of open training session. What happened the other day happens many days, conversations with players I have many, many, many times.
“Loud instruction happens every day, coaching is about that but you make story about it, so I’m happy the rules are only 15 minutes once a month and situations like that are not going to change. There is no chance you will watch a session.
United Starting XI Prediction: go to this link
Match Preview/Injury Report: go to this link
Kick-off: 1230 pm (BST), Saturday Sept 29
Odds via Bet365: United 17/20 Draw 13/5 West Ham United 3/1
Prediction: United 1, West Ham United 1
As always, feel free to post your own United and/or West Ham starting XI predictions, as well as your best guess as to what the final score will be.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, is currently a regular contributor to SB Nation, WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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