By Adebayo Williams
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has said that his team will be going for a victory when they clash with Leicester City in the Community Shield on Sunday. Mourinho says victory will be significant to the players that were part of the FA Cup winning team last season. Although he lamented the lack of game time and training sessions for his team due to the bad weather in China, the former Chelsea boss says his team will be up to the task against the Foxes.
“The week of no work in China was really bad for us,” said Mourinho.
“So we need to train, we need to play, we need minutes for the players.
“Now we have no chance to train against other teams. We have Leicester before the Premier League and it is not a training session – it is a game.
“We have to face it as a game. We have the chance to give minutes to some people. Some who I know cannot play for 90 minutes, but of course we are going to try to win it.”
On the other hand, Leicester City’s Claudio Ranieri has said that he has a fit squad to choose from. The Foxes have Jamie Vardy training with the team and Super Eagles’ Ahmed Musa, who scored a brace against Barcelona, also up for the match. Ranieri says the team have put their fairy tale Premier League triumph behind them and are now focused on the new season.
“We’re ambitious but know it will be very hard,” added Foxes boss Ranieri.
“I forgot what happened last season. Now my focus is on the new season.”
“All managers and players want to play at Wembley Stadium. It’s one of the most famous stadiums in the world,” he said.
“This is not a friendly. We will give the maximum and also Manchester United will too. Both teams want to win it.”
Leicester have won the traditional season-opener just once, beating Liverpool in 1971, when they were invited to take part as second-tier champions after double winners Arsenal pulled out.
Discussion about this post