JOSE MOURINHO IS adamant he had no other option but to play a weakened side against Tottenham as he feels Manchester United lack the strength in depth to fight in two competitions.
The United boss made eight changes to the team that saw off Celta Vigo in the Europa League on Thursday to set up a final against Ajax on May 24, and saw his side beaten 2-1 to end their top-four hopes.
United now need to beat Ajax in Stockholm to secure Champions League football for 2017-18, but Mourinho has stressed he did not gamble by throwing in the towel domestically.
“When people say we gambled by going to Europa League, we did not gamble,” Mourinho told Sky Sports.
“You cannot play two big competitions with 15 players. It was compulsory.
“The ones that needed to play 90 mins got to play, we got no injuries. At the moment, the Premier League matches are the ones we do not want to play.
“I do not want to think about next season – I want to think about the final we have to play in.”
United put in an underwhelming performance at White Hart Lane, but Mourinho was nonetheless pleased with what he saw.
“After 2-0 we had to bring a bit more quality to the team, we brought more balance,” Mourinho added.
“We put players back in the right positions. I am happy, I am fine with what we had in terms of individual performances.
“The two goals conceded were bad.”
best of luck to him. he has left a great template. 8 months of negotiations? feel sorry they dragged him through it for that long. probably had no intention of giving him whatever he wanted
A lot of unanswered questions in this saga. Very regrettable that Billy Walsh has resigned as Irish coach.
The IBAA will have a lot of explaining to do, how this situation wasn’t resolved.
Will Billy take more of his back room staff with him is the next question
it most likely will never be explained officially. most likely a case of one man becoming bigger than the organisation and the administrators can’t have that! not in this country anyway. a familiar end to an Irish success story.
You can almost hear their conversation – “Who the hell does Walsh think he is, look ah’ him, prancin’ around Doha like he runs the whole organisation, makin’ it ouhh like he’s the reason our boxers are doin’ so well, like it was all his ideas. Well it’s time to soften his cough and get rid ohh’ him. You watch, we’ll be grand, didn’t need him, he’s got too big for his boots!”
Well it wasn’t just money. The ability to pick your team as a coach and not need to have it ” ratified” by the boxing council is not much to ask.
The boxers will feel this the hardest and fair play to him he waited till after the world’s to announce his decision. He’ll be coaching the USA mens team before ya know it.