Jose Mourinho forced to wheel Romelu Lukaku out again for Manchester United vs Everton over lack of options
Special One joked about getting Michael Carrick out of retirement to play up front but was it a dig at failed summer transfers?
THINGS have apparently got so bad for Jose Mourinho that he talked of bringing Michael Carrick out of retirement to play up front against Juventus.
The Manchester United boss was of course being sarcastic — it was the Special One’s way of making a point about his lack of alternatives to the out-of-form Romelu Lukaku.
The £75million forward faces his former club Everton tomorrow having failed to score for his club in his last eight matches — a run stretching back to mid-September.
And he would be on the bench if only poor Mourinho had a choice in it all. Mourinho’s grumble could have been a swipe at any number of people.
What it was not, was an admission that any of this could be his fault. His dig could have been aimed at Old Trafford chief Ed Woodward for failing to buy enough players for him in the summer.
Yet Mourinho has spent over £380m since moving into the United hotseat.
Or maybe the blame lies with the national coaches who failed to send the likes of Alexis Sanchez, Marouane Fellaini and Diogo Dalot back early from the recent international break for treatment — despite knowing they were injured.
What about Jesse Lingard who has not managed his fitness properly since the World Cup and as a result has missed the last month with a groin injury?
As ever, it is not Mourinho’s fault that he is having to wheel out Lukaku week after week despite admitting his main forward is low on confidence.
Marcus Rashford could have been one option but he needs the England youngster, who turns 21 this week, to play on the wing.
Anthony Martial is another — although the French ace has finally found some form on the left hand side in recent weeks.
Yet what about pushing Ashley Young further up to play on the wing — or Juan Mata out wide, as he has done many times?
There are plenty of possibilities to bolster the middle of the park, such as Ander Herrera and Andreas Pereira.
And don’t forget about Mourinho’s £52m summer signing Fred, the Brazilian who has not started a Premier League game since September 22.
No doubt the United chief currently has injury problems and he took a thinly-veiled dig at a quartet of national coaches.
Mourinho said: “We play against Newcastle and we go to the national periods in a good situation.
“Then after two weeks we lost Dalot in Portugal, Fellaini in Belgium, Alexis with Chile, we lost who else? Scott McTominay with Scotland.”
Luke Shaw and Nemanja Matic also picked up knocks but were allowed to head back to Carrington early.
Mourinho added: “Some of them, the national teams, were very professional with us and sent the players back so we could start the process early.
"But some of them wouldn’t, they kept the players and we didn’t even know the dimension and nature of injuries.
“So when the players arrive two days before Chelsea, we have no idea what is going on.”
Mourinho is hoping Lingard — who has not played in over four weeks — could be back to face Everton tomorrow.
But he said the England ace, 25, had made some poor decisions in managing his fitness in the aftermath of a summer in Russia.
He said: “Jesse came from the World Cup with that problem.
“He thought — wrongly — that the holiday period would bring things back to normality.
“Then he thought — wrongly — that to keep working or start working with the team would improve the situation and then he felt in an impossible situation to play football.
“So now he’s going back and to do the work to try and be 100 per cent and in this moment he’s almost there because of the team’s needs.”
With a fit and firing Sanchez, Mourinho would certainly have other options — but the Chilean is doing neither right now.
The Portuguese said his January signing from Arsenal is ‘struggling with his condition’ — yet this is the same player who was in ‘fantastic condition’ in August.
Mourinho said: “Alexis arrived in January and I don’t think is ever an easy situation for a player.
“But this season he had a good start, a good pre-season, he started well against Leicester, and then he was injured.
“Then he came back and was injured again so he’s struggling with his condition and he is the kind of player that needs to be really, really sharp to play his best game.”
Problems everywhere. But none of them of Mourinho’s making.