Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has already found himself coming under scrutiny for distancing himself from the club’s players. Mourinho has been frustrated with recent Manchester United performances, as have supporters, and has decided to make it clear he’s been unhappy with several individual performances.
Jesse Lingard and Henrikh Mkhitaryan were both criticised after Manchester United lost to their City rivals, and Luke Shaw faced criticism after the Watford defeat.
According to Thibaut Courtois, it’s not something which Mourinho has suddenly started at Manchester United. The goalkeeper has granted a lengthy interview to Spanish newspaper Marca and when asked to compare the managers he’s had, Mourinho obviously came up.
On his former Chelsea manager, Courtois said: “Usually close to the players, but when the results did not go with it last year we could feel him beginning to have some distance.”
Diego Simeone got rather more praise: “Basically he’s a man who lives for football and his winning mentality is very big.
“The way in which he transmits things is incredible, just by talking he makes you grow and overcome your limits. And that’s what we did, we were the better team for motivation. We believed and belief is power.”
On current manager Antonio Conte, Courtois said: “Always thinking of football, tactically very strong, knows what he wants from the team and gets us into his idea based on videos, training and simulating situations in matches… with Conte we know that if we work, games go well. Besides, his idea is to to play from the back and that suits me.”
