Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho, has told his players to “learn to survive” with the expectation that comes with playing for the club.
The United manager who stunned reporters with a 12-minute monologue on Friday, says defeats such as that to Sevilla, will teach the squad how to deal with the burden of representing the Old Trafford side.
“They have to learn how to cope with that level of expectation and that level of pressure and they have to survive and when they survive they become stronger.
“You know, easy life, and the fans not upset and no critics, that’s not good. That’s not good, because if you want to make a real top team with top mentality they need to grow up.
“They need to grow up and the best way to grow up is to have this kind of feeling. So, I don’t want the fans to have lower expectations, I want the fans to have high expectations because I want the players to have high expectations too,” Mourinho said.
The Portuguese also praised Manchester City’s long-term planning and admitted that United would struggle to challenge their rivals next season, if they continue to develop and invest in their squad.
“If the clubs that are in a better situation than us, if they stop to invest, in everything and we do invest, I would say, we are side to side.
“But if they are in a better situation than us, and they keep investing the same or more than us, it’s difficult. It’s difficult. It’s as simple as that. It’s difficult,” Mourinho said.
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