Jose Mourinho talked in an interview about walking into a “sad club” last May and how, even 10 months on, “we are not ready to be Manchester United, not ready to be a dominant force”.
“There is a space between the general ambition of such a giant club and what we are in reality,” the United manager said.
Anyone who watched United crowbar their way into the Europa League quarter-finals here against a spirited but limited FC Rostov will understand what Mourinho means, even if the Portuguese believes his task of revitalising the club is being undermined by a schedule that he fears has left his team at breaking point. So much so, in fact, that Mourinho made the extraordinary claim that United “will probably lose on Sunday” at home to Middlesbrough.
Convincing this was most certainly not, the night following a similar theme to many games at Old Trafford this season, with United carving enough chances to put the game to bed early on only for that familiar wastefulness to leave them vulnerable after the interval.
An edgy, uncomfortable finish was summed up by an erratic Phil Jones playing the final 27 minutes at left wing-back and only a few very good saves from man-of-the-match Sergio Romero, either side of Juan Mata scoring in the 70th minute, prevented this banana skin of a tie from going to extra-time.
On the subject of bananas, there was the curious sight of Mourinho handing Ashley Young, an unused substitute, a banana to give to Marcos Rojo to munch on during the second half but, for the manager, it was no laughing matter.
Rojo, Mourinho said, was dead on his feet, that episode and the loss of Paul Pogba two minutes into the second half with a hamstring injury that rules him out for the foreseeable future prompting another angry assault on the authorities about a debilitating fixture list.
“In the last part of the game we had problems and we had injuries,” said Mourinho, whose side had played for 65 minutes with 10 men during their 1-0 FA Cup quarter-final defeat at Chelsea on Monday. “It was a difficult game and we have lots of enemies. Normally the enemies should be Rostov but we have lots of enemies. It’s difficult to play Monday night with 10 men... we have to play again Sunday. We have lots of things going against us. Probably we lose the game on Sunday.
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