CASE FOR DEFENCE 1
JOSE MOURINHO is in fighting form ahead of tomorrow’s return to Stamford Bridge.
He is second in the table, in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup, has won four out of four in the Champions League and has the best defensive record in the Prem.
His Manchester United side has also hit four goals on six occasions this season.
Yet the debate in some quarters is whether Mourinho’s team is boring. It’s no debate for the Special One.
Mourinho said: “We are doing very, very well. Very, very well.
“You and the specialists, you know the football that we were playing in the beginning of the season. You know. And now you pretend you don’t know.
“Now you pretend we never played amazing football, we never scored lots of goals, we never scored amazing goals, we never had our midfield players and our defenders arriving in the opposition box and scoring goals and creating chances.
“I know that you know that. You just pretend because it’s convenient for you to pretend this didn’t exist but it exists.”
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Having had a few digs at the United fans, Mourinho was aiming this attack at TV pundits and a section of the media who he feels turned on him after the goalless draw at Anfield three weeks ago.
OK, it has not been thrill-a-minute since then and the Red Devils lost their first game this season at Huddersfield.
But United have also beaten Portuguese champions Benfica home and away, Swansea in the Carabao Cup 2-0 and Tottenham in the league. Yes, that Tottenham, the one that beat Real Madrid 3-1.
So you can understand if the United boss has got a bit of a cob on.
He has kept United’s season going despite injuries, most notably to record buy Paul Pogba who has been missing with a hamstring problem for the last 11 games. The £89million midfielder is close to a recall and may even make the bench at Chelsea tomorrow.
But Mourinho says he has never moaned about missing the Frenchman.
He said: “I think any other manager would be speaking about Pogba every day. ‘Oh I don’t have Pogba, ‘oh when will I have Pogba’, ‘oh ten matches without Pogba’, ‘oh all the Champions League group phase without Pogba’, ‘oh all the big matches against Liverpool, against Chelsea, against Spurs without Pogba’.
“I don’t speak about Pogba one single time.
“And it’s not just Pogba. It’s Fellaini, it’s Carrick, it’s Ibra, it’s Marcos Rojo, it’s a big group of players.
So yes, we miss our players and we had to play big matches without them and probably we are going to play one more without them.”
Now Mourinho says he might change tack so people realise how well United have done without some of their stars.
He said: “It’s my fault because I should cry every week about our injuries and remind everybody day after day or press conference after press conference.
“But maybe I have to reconsider my profile. I know I moan with a lot of things but I don’t with injuries and probably I should.”
Victory at his old club Chelsea, and a favour from Arsenal at The Etihad, would result in Manchester City’s five-point lead at the top being slashed.
For Mourinho all is well, he just wishes others could see it.
CASE FOR DEFENCE 2
DEFIANT Jose Mourinho says he has paid everything he owed to the Spanish taxman.
The Manchester United boss was yesterday grilled about accusations of a £2.9million tax fraud while he managed Real Madrid in 2011 and 2012.
After leaving the hearing in Madrid, Mourinho, 54, told reporters he had cleared any debt.
He said: “I left Spain in 2013 with the conviction that my fiscal situation was perfectly legal.
“Two years later I was told an investigation had been opened and that to regularise my situation I had to pay a certain amount.
“I did not debate it, did not appeal it, I paid and the case is closed.”
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