Mourinho relaxed despite Dortmund thrashing

Jose Mourinho said he would not be
rushing into judgement on his players as a
result of Manchester United’s 4-1 drubbing
by Borussia Dortmund in Shanghai on
Friday.
“Unfair to make any decision. Day by day
they are starting to win my trust,”
Mourinho said of his players, who only
returned to pre-season training 10 days
ago.
Dortmund have been back for a month
already, and it showed with superior levels
of fitness in the International Champions
Cup match played in an energy-sapping
temperature of 35 Celsius despite an 8.05
pm kick-off.
“I know in pre-season the team in the
advance stage of preparation looks better,”
he said.
“It happens year after year. It was too
obvious. We knew after 10 minutes that one
team started training a month ago and
played four games.”
Gonzalo Castro scored twice for the German
side, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang bagged a
penalty and Ousmane Dembele showed why
the Frenchman is regarded as one of the
best young talents in Europe with a superb
finish.
“The reality is even in this situation we
have six players still in Europe, plus
(Wayne) Rooney and (Chris) Smalling who
are only training. That is eight not involved.
“We had no (Zlatan) Ibrahimovic, (Anthony)
Martial, (Marouane) Fellaini, (Morgan)
Schneiderlin – lots of them aren’t here yet.”
It was Mourinho’s first defeat as United
manager in just his second match, after a
2-0 win at Wigan last Saturday.
The Portuguese former Chelsea and Real
Madrid boss reiterated his pre-match
comments that he needed one more signing
to get the balance of his side right.
“Our fundamental market is 75 percent
done and when we sign one midfield player,
that will be done,” he said. “The
fundamental market is four players and we
just need that crucial one.”
Mourinho’s opposite number Thomas
Tuchel has been busy in the transfer market
in the past two days with the return to the
club of World Cup-winning goalscorer Mario
Goetze and Germany’s former Chelsea star
Andre Schurrle.
“I am very happy that the transfer (of
Goetze) worked out. By making this
decision and committing, Mario has chosen
to take the difficult path,” said Tuchel,
referring to the 24-year-old striker angering
Dortmund’s fans by leaving for Bayern
Munich two years ago.
The German also praised Schurrle as an
unselfish player who would help the
balance of his side.
“We urgently needed a player up front. He
has special qualities. He puts his ego
aside,” said Tuchel.
“We define our style as attacking when we
have the ball, and attacking the ball when
we are defending. He can do that.”
United face arch-rivals Manchester City in
Beijing on Monday. Dortmund will play Pep
Guardiola’s City in Shenzhen on Thursday
to round-out the three-team pre-season
tournament in China.