Jose Mourinho anticipates Manchester United will not have a lot of the ball against Manchester City
Jose Mourinho has admitted he has prepared his side to defend for most of the game against Manchester City.
The Manchester United boss named a surprisingly attacking side for the visit of City to Old Trafford and fans were speculating whether the Red Devils were planning all out attack against their local rivals.
Anthony Martial, Romelu Lukaku and Marcus Rashford all started against City, but speaking just before kick-off Mourinho shot dead the idea it might be an attacking minded side.
More: Football
The manager even hinted he was planning to park the bus in the Manchester derby.
‘It is not true,’ said Mourinho when asked if it was an attacking team.
Manchester United 2017/18 Fixtures
Manchester City (H) – Sun Dec 10
West Bromwich Albion (A) – Sun Dec 17
Bristol City (A) – Wed Dec 20 (EFL Cup)
Leicester City (A) – Sat Dec 23
Burnley (H) – Tues Dec 26
Southampton (H) – Sat Dec 30
Everton (A) – Mon Jan 1
Stoke City (H) – Sat Jan 20
Tottenham (A) – Wed Jan 31
‘When they have the ball you have to defend with eleven and when you have the ball you have to attack with eleven including the goalkeeper because the goalkeeper needs to know what to do when we have the ball. It’s as simply as that.’
He added: ‘When they have the ball we want to recover it and when we know the way they ball we will not have a huge percentage with the ball at our feet.’
City arrive at their bitter rivals aiming to set a new unbeaten Premier League record and end United’s hopes of beating them to the title.
More: Manchester United FC
United are eight points behind City in the table and a loss on Sunday could put the Sky Blues out of sight.
Mourinho has often been accused of killing ties against the big clubs in a bid to avoid defeat.
But, United were in scintillating form against Arsenal last week, playing an open game that required a masterclass from David de Gea.
MORE: Liverpool match Merseyside derby record despite frustrating 1-1 draw with Everton
MORE: Liverpool trio fuming as Sadio Mane selfishly wastes golden opportunity against Everton
[contf] [contfnew]
METRO
[contfnewc] [contfnewc]
The post Jose Mourinho anticipates Manchester United will not have a lot of the ball against Manchester City appeared first on News Wire Now.