Manchester United returned to European Football with their first UEFA Europa League tie, at Feyenoord Rotterdam Thursday night. The result was a 1-0 Europa League defeat that absolutely screamed disinterest from the Red Devils. It all started at the top with Manager Jose Mourinho, who spent a good deal of the press availabilities leading up to the match talking about how this tournament was not the one that MUFC wanted.
Mourinho’s take on the Europa League and its significance?
Well, yesterday, he made comments that delightfully condescended the Europa League competition. He kept it 100, 100% real, as he told us exactly what the Europa League really is and what it really is not.
On the heels of those remarks, Mourinho even went a step further in the pregame run-up and said that being in the Europa League tournament was a detriment to his side’s title hopes.
“It [the Europa League] is not a competition that Man United wants,” Mourinho told reporters. “It is not one I want or the players but it is a competition where we are and that is the reality.
“We have to respect the competition. We want to do well and for a club of our dimension it is not to be out of the competition in the group stage.”
“It’s more difficult, yes [to win the Premier League when you are playing in the Europa League]. It would be better if we had the privilege of playing on a Monday after a Thursday game to have one day [recovery] but we didn’t get that privilege.”
“In fact, the gift we have is to play Liverpool on the Monday before, not the Monday after. So [next month] we play Liverpool on the Monday, Fenerbahce on the Thursday and Chelsea on the Sunday. So we know that we are not going to have any kind of support on that.
“We are not going to make a drama out of it. There is more reason to get a result tomorrow because if you go into the last game in December [against Zorya Luhansk in Ukraine] needing points to qualify it puts us in a more difficult situation.”
All this was conveyed in Mourinho’s body language on the sidelines today. He was fired up, and it trickled on down to the players, many of which were also disinterested in playing this match. United just didn’t care, and they got exactly the result that they deserved when you simply don’t care.
United simply acted as if they were above the Europa League, and maybe that’s true as Europe’s consolation bracket is indeed a far cry from the Champions League, but since United have never ever claimed a Europa League Trophy before, it sure would be in their best interests to add that accomplishment to the very long list of United accolades.
Maybe.
If they want to.
I guess we’ll see for the home leg of this tie at Old Trafford on November 24th.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.
