Jose Mourinho admits that he is ‘in fear’ ahead of the upcoming Premier League campaign, after a tempestuous pre-season in the USA.[spacer height=”30px”]
Manchester United have embarked on a tour of the United States, playing against Club America, San Jose Earthquakes, AC Milan and Liverpool, but have won just the twice so far, on penalties against the Serie A giants, and were thumped 1-4 by Jurgen Klopp’s men. Though the 2-1 win over Real Madrid could be seen as a silver lining.[spacer height=”30px”]
Mourinho has been without several key players during the trip, including the likes of Romelu Lukaku, Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard and Marouane Fellaini, due to their World Cup exploits. The Portuguese insists that he is totally unsure of how the team is going to perform in the opening few weeks of the League given that most of them had missed the pre-season.[spacer height=”30px”]
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Sources at Man Utd believe impact of Rui Faria’s departure is already being felt as Mourinho’s mood swings become more frequenthttps://t.co/6qpfoIfjoC
— Telegraph Football (@TeleFootball) July 31, 2018
[spacer height=”30px”]With key players missing, Jose Mourinho had to dig deep into the youth side and utilise them for the pre-season. It is of boon that the young players like Axel Tuanzebe and Tahith Chong among others had valuable game time against the world’s best. Missing the key players meant that the Red Devils will need more time to build team chemistry, with the players slowly joining and Premier League starting on August, 9th.[spacer height=”30px”]
Having already criticized the make-up of his squad, the ex-Chelsea boss has now admitted that he is worried about the start of the campaign, with such little time to work with his first-team stars. He spoke with beIN SPORTS about United’s Pre-season preparations.[spacer height=”30px”]
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“This is a very strange pre-season. It’s not our fault,[spacer height=”20px”]
They did as always a fantastic job to organize it, and we must give the players at the World Cup a little bit of a holiday.[spacer height=”20px”]
The pre-season in terms of organisation is fantastic but we don’t have our players and that’s a big frustration especially because we go back to Europe and when we arrive, we start the Premier League, with all the risks it takes to us.[spacer height=”20px”]
We are going to start without the players that were involved in the World Cup, without proper training for them and it’s going to be hard. Honestly, I fear it a bit.” [spacer height=”20px”]
– Jose Mourinho[/perfectpullquote]
[spacer height=”30px”]United open their campaign against Leicester City on August 10, and the transfer window is set to close 24 hours prior. United have so far signed Brazilian midfielder Fred, defender Diogo Dalot and back-up goalkeeper Lee Grant.[spacer height=”30px”]
Jose Mourinho, though, is keen to bolster his squad further and has stated that he hopes to sign two more players, though he may be forced to settle for one more acquisition. Reports claim that he is in the market for a central defender, links persist with Leicester’s Harry Maguire and Tottenham’s Toby Alderweireld, and a right winger.[spacer height=”30px”]
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