Mourinho: We are going to get better

The Reds are currently 10th in the division after seven matches but the manager firmly believes in his squad and insists a resurgence is probable.

“I think we have enough potential to do better than what we are doing in the Premier League,” he said. “We are better than this and, because we are better than this, our situation is going to improve. I have no doubts about that.

“This team can do much better than what it's doing and the team will do much better than what it's doing, but if you want me to repeat, I repeat. I told [you] last season was a fantastic season for us and if you want something more, in pre-season I also said that this season was going to be very difficult.”

United finished second behind champions Manchester City last May and reached the Emirates FA Cup final. Mourinho was asked why he thought it was a 'fantastic' campaign.

“Because success has a direct relation with your own potential and has a direct relation with the potential of your opponents and the last season was phenomenal, exactly because of these two factors,” he explained. "I think opponents with much more potential than us finished behind us. That's the reason why it was a phenomenal season.

“With all the respect, and I hope they don't interpret me in a negative way, if we are playing in a league like the Swiss league and we don't win that league, anything else apart from winning that league would be an awful season.

“In this season with the potential of our direct opposition, last season to finish second was a fantastic season for us.”

United need to get back to winning ways at Old Trafford in order to provide the foundation for the recovery. The Reds haven’t won at home since the opening night of the Premier League season in August, when beating Leicester City 2-1. Rafa Benitez’s Newcastle are currently in the bottom three and haven’t won a league match all campaign.

Jose hopes a repeat of the energy expended against Valencia in last Wednesday’s 0-0 home draw in Group H can steer the Reds to a much-needed victory.


“We can win against Newcastle. We can win against Newcastle, but it's a difficult match. We can win, we want to win,” Jose said. 

“If the effort, the commitment, the desire that the team showed against a difficult opponent like Valencia, if we do that against Newcastle probably we are a bit luckier and we win the match, so we have possibilities to win the match.

“But I refuse to say that we have three points in the pocket. I have to respect an opponent. I have to respect a manager [Benitez] with a history of trophies, with a history of know-how and that's the way I was brought up in life and in football. To respect.”