Speaking to Sky Sports, former Manchester United legend Jaap Stam has made it clear that there’s no other target for his old club to aim for other than the league title.
The Dutchman was integral to Sir Alex Ferguson‘s Manchester United side that won the Premier League three times consecutively in the late 90s. As the current manager of Reading in the Championship, Stam has the experience and knowledge to know what quality of players to bring in, praising Mourinho’s buys.
“A club like United, you always want to win the league. It’s always their aim. It has to be their aim, to win the league. Bringing certain players in with a certain quality, it’s always been like that at United as well.” he said.
Stam continued, “You’re always looking as a manager, Mourinho as well, how last season went and what quality do we need. You’re going to be looking for that as a club. You can see now, with the signings that they’ve done, brought some great players in; quality-wise very good, experience-wise very good as well.”.
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“That makes it interesting as well because if you look at the other teams as well, they’re all bringing good players in because they all want to win the league or do well in the Champions League.” said Stam.
The former defender is clearly a fan of Mourinho’s transfer window in which he signed Lindelof, Lukaku and Matic to compliment last years incomings of Bailly, Ibrahimovic, Pogba and Mkhitaryan. However, Jose is still hopeful for one more signing in the form of a winger in order to complete his transfer window.
Perhaps with the last signing wrapped up, the Portuguese tactician will focus on selling some of his players with the squad a little overstocked in some areas such as centre-backs. Jones, Rojo, Smalling, Lindelof, Bailly and Blind are all capable of playing there, not to mention talented youngsters Timothy Fosu-Mensah and Axel Tuanzebe.
Either way, there’s still the rest of August before the deadline so who knows who may leave or join the club yet. Just around the corner however, Manchester United face off against Real Madrid in the UEFA Super Cup final in Macedonia with the first available silverware on the line before the Premier League even begins.
With an early chance to test themselves against the best in the world, it’ll be interesting to see how the manager sets his team up against the La Liga giants. With the ‘Special One’ alternating between a 3-5-2 and a 4-1-4-1 formation, fans may get a clearer chance of how the Red Devils will shape up for the rest of the season.
Next: Anthony Martial is a part of Jose Mourinho’s plans
Mourinho has stated however, that he prefers the tactical flexibility in alternating between formations according to the opposition and the match situation so which formation will he use against Zidane’s men? The Spanish club were beaten on penalties when Manchester United faced them earlier on in pre-season. Will there be a repeat of that?