Manchester United signed off their pre-season tour of the United States with a win on Tuesday night, beating an understrength Real Madrid side 2-1 in Miami thanks to goals by Ander Herrera and Alexis Sanchez. It was the perfect response to Saturdays dispiriting 4-1 defeat to Liverpool, even if its importance as a match was minimal. Still, after a period of negativity from manager Jose Mourinho, with the former Chelsea boss upset to be missing several World Cup stars and with less new players than he’d like, United can return to Manchester with some good work under their belts prior to the start of the Premier League season.
And Herrera, who has been an ever-present for Mourinho during these five tour games understands the frustrations of his manager coming into this new campaign.
“I agree with [Mourinho] because it must be difficult for him to work with a group of players that maybe he is going to have 50 per cent of them in the future,” Herrera said in quotes carried by the Independent.
“You cannot really work tactically because you would think the guys that are working could be leaving or going on loan or they are going to the second team. It’s also difficult for us but we knew that it was going to be like this.
“I can understand the manager and, if I put myself in his position, I would be in the same situation. You want to fight for the titles but you don’t have the team with you to work for it right now.
“The most intelligent thing would have been to postpone the start of the season by maybe one week. This is my fifth pre-season and it’s the most strange pre-season here so far.”
Of the Premier League’s biggest clubs, United have been more effected than most by the World Cup this summer, with eleven first team players missing the start of pre-season. Still, that number has decreased to four, with only Jesse Lingard, Ashley Young, Paul Pogba and Marouane Fellaini left to return to the club after their holidays.
