How Mourinho will manage Faria's exit at United

On the eve of Michael Carrick’s final match in a Reds shirt, against Watford, it was announced that Faria had decided to leave his post at Old Trafford. 

In the short term at least, Mourinho is not searching for a replacement for his long time sidekick. Instead, the manager plans to restructure his backroom staff, disband the current make up of his off-field team and scrap the role of number two. But Carrick’s retirement and official move into the coaching team at Old Trafford means a door could open eventually for the 36-year-old.

“No number two," the manager said on Sunday. "Moving forward, I will organise my coaching staff in a way where the assistant manager figure doesn’t exist.

“I’m going to have coaches, assistant coaches, fitness coaches and a structure where we have specialists in different areas, connected to the performance by analysts. I’m not going to have an assistant manager in the sense of the word.”

But it could only be a temporary departure from the normal management set up.

“The particular reason is that I think it will be Michael Carrick in the future, when he has his badges and his pro licence, when he makes the bridge from a player to an assistant,” added Mourinho.

“People think it’s just like ‘one day I am a player, the next day I am a coach’ and it’s not like that. The brain can be ready for that but then you need the practice, the decision-making, the control, the leadership, the work in groups.”

Faria has been Mourinho’s right-hand man for 17 years from the United manager’s early years in Portugal through to Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Old Trafford. Until Carrick stakes his claim, Mourinho doesn’t believe there is a suitable candidate to fill Rui’s shoes.

“I don’t think it makes sense when Rui is leaving after 17 years,” he told reporters at the post-match press conference. “I have nobody in the world of football to be my assistant manager – nobody. 

“So I prefer to educate people, to structure my staff in a way where there is space for their education and improvement. When Michael has the coaching and pro licence badges, with the personality he has, with the friendship, with our honesty, I think it will be for him.”

Asked if Carrick will have a say on transfers, Jose said: “At the moment he is my assistant and he participates in the process. Participating in the process means participating in every aspect. Of course I have to make the decisions but my assistants have an opinion and he has obviously he will have a different opinion to those you can get from any other scout, or any analysis department.”

The United manager will employ some new faces also for his reconstructed backroom team.

“I am going to improve my staffing in the performance level in relation to the fitness and the relation with the tactical work. So I’m going to bring some people in,” he said.

Jose went on to pay tribute to Carrick’s playing career, wishing he could have managed a younger version of the midfielder. “I can call Sir Alex the intelligent one to buy him and I can call him the happy one to have him for so many years of his career as a phenomenal player.

“I’m not so sad because it’s just the end of his career as a player, but he stays with us and I’m always more connected to the person than the player; people are more important to me than players, so I’m going to have him stay with us, and because of that I’m not so sad.”