Jose Mourinho arguably faces the biggest match of his short Manchester United career when they play Liverpool on 17th October, and a look into his training regime and practices before the big match gives us an interesting insight on the ‘special one’s’ policies during an international break.
The Portuguese manager has a fixed off day policy which has endeared himself to the Manchester United squad with many senior players enjoying the opportunity to plan outings with friends and family. During the international break, Mourinho has given 4 days off to his non internationals, giving important players like Michael Carrick and Luke Shaw a long weekend off.
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The Red Devils usually train between Tuesday and Thursday every week and the internationals are expected to report back to training tomorrow. Since, Manchester United face Liverpool only on Monday, it gives the returning players extra time to recover ahead of the big match.
Carrick, Morgan Schneiderlin, Juan Mata, Ashley Young and Sam Johnstone were not selected by their national teams, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic has retired from international football. Other notable absentees included Henrikh Mkhitaryan who remained in Manchester and England duo of Luke Shaw and Phil Jones who were not fit enough to play for the national team.
17 members of Mourinho's 26-man squad have been on international duty this month, with the South American trio of Antonio Valencia, Sergio Romero and Marcus Rojo expected to figure in Ecuador and Argentina's fixtures on Tuesday evening.
With Jose Mourinho offering a relaxed training schedule for the Manchester United players, the onus will be on them to put up a good performance against their bitter rivals Liverpool and not let down their manager.
Ander Herrera credits Jose Mourinho for Spain call-up
Midfielder Ander Herrera has thanked Jose Mourinho for giving him the license to express himself and credited the Manchester United manager's tactics for his first call-up to the Spain squad. Herrera has flourished in the holding midfield role as the 27-year-old has been a regular feature under Mourinho, scoring once in eight appearances in all competitions this season.
"Mourinho encourages me to do it. Mourinho gives you more freedom as a player," Herrera told British media."He wants the player's instinct to come through... he tells us to let that if that instinct guides us on the pitch then we should try things."
The midfielder has been in good form this season and he will be expected to start along with Pogba against Liverpool on Monday night.
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