Graeme Souness has hit back at Jose Mourinho’s complaints about Manchester United’s schedule, insisting he never felt tired as a professional footballer.
Souness, speaking after United’s drab goalless draw at Southampton on Wednesday, believes Mourinho is handing United’s players an excuse to lose.
He told Sky Sports: ‘We’ve all done it, we’ve all been there. It’s the price on the ticket if you’re winning trophies. If you get to the later stages of European cups… you have to deal with [lots of games]. It’s nothing new in football.
‘Big players have to say to themselves “I’m not tired.” I mean it, I never ever felt tired. I think what happened if I did feel tired, it would be maybe we’d lost a couple of games and you started to feel sorry for yourself, and that would last a nano- minute.
‘The more success we had, I couldn’t wait for the next game to come along. The last thing I would want is a manager continuously telling me I’m tired. You’re handing an excuse to your players to not play well. I talk from experience. People say the game has changed, but has it changed that much?’
Souness played 673 times in his own club career, spanning 21 years and five different countries.
Between 1974 and 1986, he also juggled commitments with the Scottish national team, and he insists United’s players have not even been worked particularly hard in recent weeks.
‘Was that a difficult game of football tonight?’ he asked. ‘No it wasn’t. Was it a tough game against Tottenham at the weekend? It wasn’t a terribly demanding physical game where they were getting knocks.
‘Was it a physically demanding game against Arsenal the week before when you’re sitting in there, not chasing the game? I don’t see it. You deal with it and you get on with it. This is not a new problem.’
Mourinho and his players now look forward to the Europa League final next week, where they face Ajax in Stockholm.
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