Fridays brings the weekly manager press conferences ahead of the weekend fixtures, and when Jose Mourinho gave his today it was bizarre and terse. When the Manchester United manager rocked up on the mic he rocked upon the mic wrong. He showed up a half hour early, so that less media would be there, and he gave short, terse and defensive answers.
You can hear the audio at this link. We don’t know a whole lot about the United injury and fitness situation because Mourinho just wouldn’t say much.
Asked his thoughts about the development of central defenders Eric Bailly and Victor Lindelof he responded: “I don’t analyze with you my players.”
Obviously that’s a sore spot given how
a.) Mourinho badly wanted centre back upgrades this window and didn’t them
b.) the duo mentioned were his selected transfer buys in previous windows and they’re not working out and
c.) Bailly is coming off arguably his worst game ever in a Red Devils shirt.
Asked what he hopes from United against Tottenham on Monday, he offered nothing beyond this: “To play well and win, don’t make mistakes, play well and win. That is what we want.”
Mourinho was then asked the follow up question of how do you get the team to accomplish this, how you do get them right after the Brighton loss? His answer was little more beyond a repetition of the first answer. Fun times! Let’s take a look at who Mourinho might select in this one.
The Sports Bank Starting XI Prediction
Forwards: Marcus Rashford, Romelu Lukaku, Jesse Lingard
Midfielders: Paul Pogba, Nemanja Matic, Fred
Defenders: Ashley Young, Eric Bailly, Victor Lindelof, Matteo Darmian
Goalkeeper: David de Gea
United vs Tottenham Injury Report/Match Preview: go to this link
Tottenham Starting XI Predictions, Team News: go to this link
On a side note, this match was supposed to feature a United fan protest against club Vice Chairman Ed Woodward, but now that got moved to next week’s league fixture at Burnley. So there is all kinds of discord all around United right now.
Kick-off: 8 pm (BST), Monday 27 August
Odds via Betway: United 6/4 Draw 12/5 Tottenham 9/5
Prediction: United 1, Tottenham 1
Feel free to post your own United and/or Spurs 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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