Los Angeles: Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is worried by the absence of key players from the club’s pre-season training camp in the United States, saying that the situation was ‘very bad’ ahead of the Premier League campaign.
United are without several World Cup participants, including France’s Paul Pogba, Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku and Marouane Fellaini, and England’s Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford among others, as they rest following a gruelling tournament. Chilean forward Alexis Sanchez is also absent from the camp due to visa issues.
“The pre-season is very bad, the positive thing of the pre-season is only for the young boys that have a fantastic opportunity to train with us,” Mourinho, who also calls himself the ‘Special One’, told reporters, Wednesday.
As we don’t have our full squad, we have to train with the available players and will try and make the best out of them players for the upcoming games
Jose Mourinho
“I’m worried because I’m not training (with everyone) and then I go to the Premier League without lots of players, but it is what it is and we have to try and make the best out of it with the players we have here. I’m not worried about playing Liverpool here or Real Madrid or Milan… I’m not worried if we lose badly,” he added.
United will play two friendly games, starting with Club America Friday, ahead of next week’s International Champions Cup tournament, where they will face domestic rivals Liverpool, Champions League winners Real Madrid and Italy’s AC Milan.
The Old Trafford side will also play a friendly August 5 against German champions Bayern Munich, five days before they kick off their league campaign against Leicester City.