Jose Mourinho will preview this weekend’s Manchester derby with the media at Manchester United’s training ground on Friday morning.
Mourinho is likely to be in good spirits after United’s brilliant comeback Champions League win at Juventus on Wednesday night, one of the best results of his Old Trafford reign so far. The optimism around United this week will soon disappear, though, if Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City run amok at the Etihad on Sunday.
City have been under the spotlight this week following allegations that the club deceived Uefa over Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules. Mourinho turned down the opportunity to speak about the Football Leaks revelations earlier this week, though may be tempted to revisit the story with a trip to City on the horizon. Follow live coverage of Mourinho’s press conference below...
What time does it start? 10.00am
Where is it? The AON Training Complex, Carrington
Hello and welcome to The Independent's live coverage of Jose Mourinho's pre-Manchester derby press conference.
Mourinho will preview Manchester United's trip to Manchester City with journalists at their Carrington training ground on Friday morning.
Mourinho is likely to be in good spirits after United’s brilliant comeback Champions League win at Juventus on Wednesday night.
The optimism around United this week will soon be gone, though, if Pep Guardiola’s City run amok at the Etihad on Sunday.
We'll have live updates with you from 10.00am.
Will Tuesday's victory reflect on Mourinho's mood today? He appears to be sticking with the early-morning press conference at the moment, though after a few spiky appearances in recent weeks, perhaps he isn't a morning person.
But if anything's going to improve his mood, it'll be a victory in Europe over a heavyweight like Juventus that not only reinvigorates their Champions League campaign, but could inject their season with the confidence needed to push on at a crucial stage.
After watching United's midweek triumph in Turin, chief sports writer Jonathan Liew saw signs of the old Mourinho that we have not witnessed for some time.
The United boss should be with us in about five minutes time. Stand by your beds...
Here's Mourinho! And away we go...
On Romelu Lukaku's fitness
Yeah Lukaku is training with the team this morning. If this answer is positive and we have of course one more session tomorrow, if the answer is positive he's ready but in this moment I can only say he trains with the team, I don't know his answer.
Is the Manchester derby special because of the 3-2 win last season?
"I don't think is special because of what happened last season, it's special because it is a Manchester derby and it means what it means."
Will you try to go toe-to-toe with City?
"We are going to try, I cannot say we are going to be successful in our motivations, in our desire, but we played two difficult matches away against two very good teams in Chelsea and Juventus and we managed to get good results and even if the good results were not in our pockets the performances were there, the positive attitude was there.
"So we are going to try but you are right, Manchester City are a very powerful team.
Does Financial Fair Play put United on a level playing field with City?
"It's difficult for me to answer because I focus on my job, I focus on the four lines, focus on football, if you want to speak about their football potential we can speak and football potential starts with investment. After that of course there is a quality of the work, of the organisation, I think that is untouchable but what is behind I cannot say.
"But in this moment I have only to think about football, and to think about football is to think about Manchester City as a football team there."
Why do United keep fighting back?
We can go to the other side, but why do we always concede before opposition? In a positive way it's easy to feel a team that does not give up, always find a way to fight back sometimes changing results, sometimes not, but we are a team that has that collective spirit to fight back but is not always lost.
"If we keep conceding goals before the opposition there will be a day where we cannot come back so we have to grow up in our approach, because it's clear the team is growing up, but we have to grow up in our compactness and start matches well. Against Juventus it happened, we concede the goal (in) minute 60 or something like that and we had a good start. In the first 15 or 20 mins we were totally in control.
Victory put United back into title race?
"If we draw (the gap) is nine, if we lose it is 12, I don't think this is the way to look at the match. We have to just think about the match, it's difficult enough by an isolated event, if you want to put that match into the context of where we are, where we can be.
"I want to play it as an isolated match, different match against different team but they think is a different match for them."
Does Pep Guardiola's Paul Pogba-stunt last season show you still get to him?
"Before that match I didn't even know about that. I didn't feel it, no."
And that's it from Mourinho, who evidently is in a rather good mood this week!
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