Jose Mourinho has said that Wednesday night’s defeat to Barcelona was the perfect end to Manchester United’s pre-season tour, claiming that a victory would have been ‘very bad’.
The Red Devils had avoided defeat in their other matches in the United States but were on the receiving end of a 1-0 loss in Maryland as Neymar’s strike decided the contest.
Far from being displeased by a performance that conjured memories of United’s cursed grey kit of the 1995-96 season, Mourinho was delighted that his squad received a reality check.
‘It’s very important to lose in pre-season,’ Mourinho told MUTV after the match.
‘I think it would be very bad for us to leave the US without a defeat against teams like Barcelona, Real Madrid and City. It would be very bad to leave just with victories.
‘So the defeat is good. But I think in the game we did very good things. We did bad things too. The good things are to keep, and the bad things are to improve.’
Mourinho also provided an update on the fitness of Juan Mata and Ander Herrera, who missed the match against Barca due to injury, as he hailed a fantastic tour of the US.
‘I am very happy,’ the Portuguese coach continued. ‘No injuries, because Mata and Herrera in this moment I don’t think we are speaking about injuries.
‘I think next Saturday it will be no problem to be back to training. So no injuries, a fantastic atmosphere, a fantastic work ethic, great organisation.
‘So now we just need to land safely in Manchester and this part of the pre-season is perfect.’
Although United lost to Barcelona, Mourinho was happy with the performance and attitude of his players, especially how they tweaked their approach in the second half.
He added: ‘The attitude was good. In the second half we defended much better.
‘I know that one thing is to defend against [Lionel] Messi, [Luis] Suarez and Neymar, another thing is to defend against three good players. But not three of the best players in the world.
‘But we were much more confident, we pushed the line up, [Phil] Jones and [Eric] Bailly pressed really high, we brought the game to their side, we arrive into dangerous positions and we could score.’
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