Opinions
Jose Mourinho admits he made similar mistake to Erik ten Hag, three Man United players come to mind
Jose Mourinho has admitted that he’s made similar mistakes to Erik ten Hag after claiming the Manchester United boss wasn’t able to get the best out of Jadon Sancho.
Sancho, 24, lined up for Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League final after being exiled from Ten Hag’s squad at United earlier in the season, although the Bundesliga outfit ended up second-best on the evening.
The winger refused to apologise to the Dutchman after hitting back at the manager’s suggestions that his training performances were underwhelming.
“As a player, we know his talent. We saw what he can do; there are no doubts about it,” said Mourinho on TNT Sports ahead of the European final at Wembley.
“For sure, the kid made mistakes, but for sure, also, his manager was not able to get the best out of him.”
However, the former United boss admitted that he was also unable to help players in similar situations throughout his career.
“If I look to my own history, sometimes I failed players,” he added. “Sometimes I couldn’t create the right empathy, I couldn’t understand the player DNA, and I couldn’t help players to grow up in the right direction.
“The majority of the time, yes, I did it, but on some occasions, I couldn’t. And I think sometimes we have to learn with the experience, which I always tried to do,
“To try to understand the nature of the players. Sometimes, they have the talent, but they don’t have the mindset that you want from the players.”
Who were those players at Manchester United?
Mourinho’s comments seem to relate to his time as manager at Old Trafford between 2016 and 2018. He was sometimes criticised for his treatment of younger talent during his spell with the Premier League club.
In particular, his relationship with Paul Pogba seemed to fit the idea that he couldn’t help the player grow in the right direction – the Portuguese manager has previously explained how he thinks the 2018 World Cup win was not entirely helpful for the French midfielder.
The likes of Anthony Martial and Luke Shaw also had difficult times under the former Porto boss. The argument was that Mourinho didn’t have empathy for Shaw, while Martial was a particular character, and it’s fair to assume that Mourinho didn’t quite understand his ‘DNA’ as he put it himself.
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