Our exclusive interview with Jose Mourinho

Saturday 15 September 2018 07:00

Following his entertaining press conference, Jose Mourinho sat down with us for an exclusive one-on-one interview about his international break, that well-documented fall at Wembley Stadium and, of course, the Premier League game against Watford at Vicarage Road...

Firstly Jose, how was your international break?
“During my international break, I had to go to Geneva for a UEFA meeting before the Champions League starts, and then I went to Wembley for that famous dive! Then I had to be back in Manchester because we still had a nice group of players to train before the internationals happened.”

We saw you at Wembley watching Luke Shaw and Marcus Rashford combine brilliantly for England’s goal, and then Luke unfortunately coming off injured. What’s the latest on him – how is he?
“He’s fine. From the protocol point of view, he will be free to play. The point is, having not worked for a week, are we going to play him or prefer a player who has worked normally during the week."

In full: Mourinho's epic defence of Rashford Video

In full: Mourinho's epic defence of Rashford

Jose was on top form during his press conference and his epic support of Marcus is definitely worth a watch...

How pleased were you for Rashford and Lukaku scoring for their countries during the international break?
“Strikers sometimes do amazing work for the team, but when they don’t score goals, that ego is not fed so they need their goals now and again.

"They don’t need to be on a goals diet for a long time! In Romelu’s case, he’s already scoring for us and went to the national team and scored two goals.

"For Marcus, after the red card and the disappointment of the suspension, to go with England and score in both matches is also a good feeling for him.”

Of course, you had so many players away on international duty. Have they all reported back healthy?
“Marouane came back injured [from Belgium] so let’s see if he can help us against Watford. There is Luke of course too, but apart from that there are no more problems. Ander had a problem in training and he may be out for this game, but nothing big really.”

Watford have had a perfect start to the season, so what are you expecting this time around? We won a thrilling game at Vicarage Road last season…
“Yes, but may be last season was one game that happens because the game went in one direction where it was one chance for us, a goal and one chance for them, a goal. There were some amazing goals, really spectacular.

"It’s difficult to have the same match, but they are very confident, [have] 12 points, nothing to fear. I think they are very confident after that big result at home against Tottenham. Our last two performances have been good and our last performance also brought a good result, so I think we’re in a good situation to go there, to play well and to get the points.”

Watford v United: The essential info

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Find everything you need to know about Saturday's trip to Vicarage Road in our match preview.