Jose Mourinho has blamed his previous success for some of the anxiety surrounding Manchester United’s trophy-less season, saying that winning the FA Cup has become vital for him and his side.
Mourinho, who has won two Champions Leagues and eight league titles in his career, suggested his past standards have put the pressure on United to win at Wembley next month.
“It’s my fault because my career was built to win,” Mourinho told ESPN Brazil. “It’s always victories and victories. And now it’s been almost a year without any victories and I feel like that’s more important than people who never won anything.
“But in reality, people who never win anything are worse than the ones who always win and someday just don’t. I have never been an entire season without victories, so that means that if I don’t win [the FA
Cup], the fact that I made it to the finals turns into only an ‘option.'”
The relationship between the Portuguese boss and star midfielder Paul Pogba has been much-scrutinised this season, with Mourinho keeping the France international out of the United first team at times.
Pogba has answered the call in recent weeks, producing a match-altering display in a rousing comeback against champions Manchester City earlier this month and provided an assist for Alexis Sanchez in United’s FA Cup semifinal defeat of Tottenham six days ago.
Asked about the rumours of discontent between the two, Mourinho said: “If that happened 10 or 15 years back, it would bother me a lot, because in that time it wouldn’t have lies in journalism.
“Actually, I don’t even know who’s a journalist and who isn’t anymore, because nowadays anyone can be a journalist. In fact, me and Paul [Pogba] never had a personal issue.
“If you tell me that we would have problems because me, as a coach, create different things than someone else and vice versa, ok. But personal issues, absolutely not.
“And I feel happy to say that Paul can be a lot of things, but there’s a think I can assure you: he’s very polite.”
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