Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho, has said he took
over a group of players that “do not know what it is to win”, when he arrived
at the club last year.
United lifted the Europa League and EFL Cup in Mourinho’s
first season, but they were criticised for poor performances in the league,
finishing sixth, 24 points behind champions Chelsea.
Mourinho says he must change the attitude within the team,
insisting only a few players had the required winning mentality.
“I arrived at Manchester United and do you know how many of
these players were champions? The ‘oldies’ that are near the end of their
careers and had remained from the Sir Alex Ferguson era,” he told Expresso.
“Others do not know what it is to win. It’s impossible to
teach football, all I can do is teach how to think. The most important thing is
the ideas.”
Mourinho is confident he can turn things around, as it is
not the first time he has faced the challenge in his career.
“I’m really bad at picking teams, I always choose teams that
are, as they say in England, in big trouble. Inter were in big trouble, Real
Madrid were in big trouble, Manchester United in big trouble.
“What does ‘big trouble’ mean? It means that they are teams
that want to win but are thousands of miles away from winning. The size and
history of the club is one thing, but the actuality of the club is another.
“Take the Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos who lifted the
Champions League trophy the other day and who is now a three-time European
champion as an example. When I came to Real Madrid in 2010, he had never played
in the quarter-finals. Not just the final or the semi-final, he had never
played the quarter-finals of the Champions League,” he added.
By Ifreke Inyang
