Jose Mourinho has given Manchester United’s players one specified day off each week, a move which has further improved his standing with the club’s players.
Sir Alex Ferguson, David Moyes and Louis van Gaal all failed to implement such a schedule, often calling players into training when they weren’t expecting it, but Mourinho has rung the changes at Carrington, adding to the feel-good factor he has brought to United’s dressing room since taking over from his strict predecessor, Louis van Gaal.
It is understood Mourinho’s players, in particular the senior ones, are delighted with the move as it allows them time to plan days out with their girlfriends and families, the Manchester Evening News report.
Mourinho’s rationale is that, as United players, they are bound to take defeats badly and, by summoning them in for an unscheduled training session, he could exacerbate the players’ domestic climate. United players are ‘chuffed’ with the new regime, with the fixed days off cited as the most pleasing aspect about it.
The atmosphere at Carrington is ‘sky high’ thanks to Mourinho and his coaching staff, with the players in ‘good spirits’. United players have reacted well to Mourinho and his six-man coaching staff’s training sessions and one source described the staff as ‘very funny, big jokers and nothing like the serious guys they make out they are when it’s game-time’.
Mourinho was joined at United by loyal assistant Rui Faria, goalkeeping coach Silvino Louro, Emilio Alvarez, Ricardo Formosinho, Carlos Lalin and analyst Giovanni Cerra and, six weeks into their stints, the players have responded positively.
United fans witnessed a glimpse of the ‘jokey’ nature among Mourinho’s staff when Formosinho chased Jesse Lingard following a prank during training in Shanghai this summer, which was released on the club’s Vine page.
United squad members have also raved about the impacts of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba, whose personalities have brought a more bullish mood to the dressing room.
One United player did, however, describe Saturday’s first 40 minutes against City as ‘s***’.
