Mourinho: Happy camp Posting By : Cahyo Hayudi Jose Mourinho says there are decisions still to be made regarding some of his players’ availability for Sunday’s game at Old Trafford, but adds the group that travel north will do so full of confidence. There was a barely a spare seat to be had at the manager’s traditional Friday afternoon press conference, with those journalists in attendance eager to hear the latest from Mourinho, who spoke about the difficult game he anticipates on Sunday, his relationship with Man United manager Louis van Gaal and Filipe Luis’ importance to the squad. First, though, Mourinho provided an injury update. ‘Diego has a chance, he has a little chance – the same as Mikel and Ramires,’ he said. ‘The only one I can confirm has no chance is Remy.’ The manager reported that the French striker is expected to be out for two to three weeks after going off injured in our midweek win over Maribor. He then went in to greater detail regarding Diego Costa’s fitness. ‘Everything happened to him. He was obviously injured and then he had to go to hospital before the Maribor game with a viral situation that we didn’t manage to resolve without him being in hospital overnight. ‘The problem is that being ill obviously didn’t help his recovery because we didn’t want to bring him here to Cobham. All the treatment he did was the medical staff going to his house. We are trying and we will see what happens between today and tomorrow. ‘I’m waiting until after tomorrow’s training session to see which players are available. I will consider nothing until then. Obviously I have studied Man United the best I could, as I always do with every opponent, but I haven’t made any decision about my team.’ What Mourinho can assess is the mood among the players and staff ahead of a match that in the corresponding fixture last season ended goalless. ‘We are playing well, we are confident, we are top of the league and we are in a good position to qualify in the Champions League. The camp is happy and we are ready for the game. ‘We go to every match to win but sometimes during a game a point is a positive point and a positive result. Last year at a certain moment the game was very difficult to win and I think both teams accepted the point as a normal result. ‘On Sunday we go to win. If you give me one point now – and we don’t play the game – I will not accept it. I want to fight for the three points.’ Our opponents on Sunday might have endured an indifferent start to the current campaign but Mourinho explained that doesn’t matter because of the stature and history of the club. The boss also offered some thoughts on his opposite number on Sunday, Louis van Gaal, who he worked under during his time at Barcelona. ‘I’m not playing against Louis on Sunday, Chelsea are playing against Man United. During the match I have no time, and for sure he has no time, to look around and see who the opposition manager is. ‘Before the match and after the match he is one of my big friends in football and I will always be happy to see him. I’ve never hidden what I feel about him. ‘He was important. He gave me a good opportunity to keep working at a high level. As a young coach to be working four consecutive years at a club like Barcelona, one with Mr Robson and three with Louis, was very important.’ Before the conference was up Mourinho gave some team news, saying Thibaut Courtois would start in goal, and he then responded to a query about Filipe Luis, the man expected to fill in at left-back for the suspended Cesar Azpilicueta who has started every league game to date. ‘It’s not easy to come in and kick Azpilicueta out of the team because he is such a good player, but so is Filipe. Our defenders are very young. What we call the second line – Christensen, Zouma, Ake – are very young players so we decided to bring an experienced player to have a group of five and give us a bit of stability. ‘Filipe is playing a lot – every game in the Champions League – so now he is in perfect condition and as you can imagine he is very stable, very experienced, and for us as a team it makes no difference.’
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 05:44:37 +0000
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