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Jose Mourinho admits defeat in title race as Manchester United target second place
Jose Mourinho conceded defeat in the Premier League title race on Friday, admitting his Manchester United team are playing to be “first of the last” as they languish 15 points behind Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.
There are still 13 games remaining, but Mourinho has taken the unusual step of admitting that his club’s cross-town rivals cannot be caught, instead revealing he is already plotting to correct that state of affairs next season.
“The game is important for us because we need points to be the first of the last,” Mourinho said ahead of Saturday’s visit of Huddersfield. “We have to try to finish second. We are in these positions all season. We were first for a few weeks and then we were always second, I don’t remember us being fourth, fifth or sixth.
“We have been there since the beginning of the season, better than last season in every aspect – points, position, number of goals scored, conceded, better in everything.
“So we have to try to stay there and is not easy because there are very good teams. Chelsea (had a) fantastic (transfer) market, Liverpool are a great team, Arsenal improved a lot in the market, Tottenham is a fantastic team and they are five points behind us.
“So we are doing quite well, with some negative moments, Wednesday was one. It is very important to do better than last season and try to win something, and if not do better.”
And Mourinho will instead take a leaf out of the book of one of his predecessors, Sir Alex Ferguson, in attempting to close the gap to City.
“I always remember when Sir Alex said in 2005-06, when we won the second title with Chelsea, ‘we need to improve a lot because they have raised the bar to such a level. They won two titles in a row,’” said Mourinho.
“The second title was easier than the first and then the biggest manager in the Premier League said Man United needed to improve a lot. That was the click for the improvement of the team.
“In ‘06-07 Man United won the title back. It has to be like that. That is why every match until the end of the season is an important match for us.”
Indeed, United started the current campaign keeping pace with their neighbours until, coincidentally, suffering their first defeat against Saturday’s opponents Huddersfield in late October.
Since then, City have proved largely unstoppable and have United’s own record title-winning margin, 18 points in 2000, well within their sights.
And winger Raheem Sterling on Friday acknowledged that his side have the title “in our hands”.
“Not taste it [the title being so close] but you have the feeling that it’s in your hands,” he said. “We just need to continue playing the way we’ve been playing with professional heads and not get ahead of ourselves. I think if we do that we can definitely win it.”
While Sterling was happy to talk about City’s title chances his manager, Guardiola, chose to play down the idea that the title race is run despite the fact that eight more victories would guarantee his side emerge victorious.
“Not yet,” he said. “There are 13 games, 39 points to play, we have a 15 point lead so it’s not over.
“We have an amazing run of tough games to play, for example at Burnley. We cannot deny and everybody knows here in England how complicated it is playing in Burnley, and after we have to go to Stoke and Goodison Park.
“We have games against Arsenal, Tottenham, United, Chelsea. It’s definitely not over.”
The league table – and Mourinho – suggest otherwise although Guardiola did admit that, if the roles were reversed, he would not yet have conceded the championship.
“No, I don’t think so,” he said. “That’s not going to happen. Until everything is done, you have to be prepared for anything to happen, in my experience.”
The biggest obstacle to City’s seemingly inevitable title charge has been a spate of awful tackles on their players in recent weeks and Sterling said it feels as if the club’s players are being “butchered”, claiming it could put individuals’ World Cup participation in doubt.
“I think some of the challenges have been awful,” he said. “I do think we need to cut down on that because we’ve got a World Cup at the end of the year and majority of the players in the top flight and in our team will be playing in it and it would be sad to see someone miss the tournament due to a silly tackle and someone get away with it.
“There are going to be challenges that are badly timed and probably not all of them are intentional, but at the same time if it’s a dangerous tackle, it’s a dangerous tackle and I think the referees and officials need to cut these tackles out because as you can see some of the players are getting butchered, butchered out there and it’s sad to see.”