Jose Mourinho is world known the world over for his in-match tactics and the mind games he plays beforehand. This season, his first at Manchester United, has brought a new set of challenges, an opportunity to truly test the reach of his intellectual abilities.
United stayed alive in four different competitions (Europa League, FA Cup, EFL Cup and Premier League top four) for most of the season. The Red Devils were in contention for three competitions an overwhelming majority of the campaign. All those matches took a lot of wear and tear out of this unit.
Eventually, Mourinho (the first United Manager to win a trophy in his very first year on the job, with the EFL Cup win over Southampton on February 26th) had to make some tough decisions. As the season hit its final stretch, he chose UEFA Europa League over finishing in the top four as the road back into UEFA Champions League.
It was a hard choice to make, and certainly one that’s been met with some criticism. Today, with a 2-1 loss at Tottenham Hotspur, the final game at White Hart Lane, United were mathematically eliminated from top four finish contention.
Mourinho hit back at those who said he gambled on the Europa League, and put all their eggs in one basket.
Mourinho says that the decision was made for him; he didn’t consciously make it himself.
“I’m not upset, because we had to make that decision. When people say ‘we gambled,’ we didn’t gamble, we didn’t choose Europa League. We had to do it. Because if I have (injured players) Ashley Young, Luke Shaw, Marcos Rojo, (Zlatan) Ibrahimovic, Tim Fosu-Mensah, if I have these guys (available), I can rotate, I can go for every match,” Mourinho told his post match news conference in north London today.
“When I have 14, 15 players I can’t do it. It’s as simple as that. It’s not possible to do it every three days with Europa League that is the competition with two more matches, with two matches in hand that we had to play later, it’s impossible,” Mourinho continued.
“We never had one occasion to rest, not even to train properly. So it was not a choice. We were pushed for that situation.”
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, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes to WGN CLTV and KOZN.
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