Exclusive - Gary Lineker's verdict on Mourinho's critics

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has received undue criticism for the style of play he promotes and will guide his latest club towards multiple trophy success.

That’s the verdict of BT Sport presenter Lineker, who sat down with Yahoo Sport for an exclusive interview in London ahead of the final round of Champions League group stage matches.

United need a point from their clash against CSKA Moscow at Old Trafford on Tuesday to seal top spot in Group E, yet questions over the brand of football he promotes continue to linger in a season when Mourinho’s side have struggled to keep pace with runaway Premier League title leaders Manchester City.

While admitting he is a huge fan of City manager Pep Guardiola and the expansive football he is promoting in team that has opened up an eight-point lead at the top of the Premier League, Lineker suggests Mourinho’s vocal critics reached conclusions on the former Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Chelsea boss long ago that they do not want to amend now.

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“Mourinho has taken on some criticism in his time at United and people have been constantly questioning his style of play, but I feel the idea this wonderfully successful manager promotes negative football is a little naive,” Lineker told us.

“United have produced some excellent flowing football this season and the number of goals they have scored confirms they have moved a few steps forward from where they were in Mourinho’s first year at the club, but a couple of factors are working against this manager as the old debate over his style of play continues to be aired.

“One of his big problems has to be the wonderful joyous performances being produced week after week by Pep Guardiola and his Manchester City team that are setting the standard of excellence at such a high level in English football this season and the second may be that people have formed an opinion about Mourinho and how he plays the game and they find it hard to look beyond that.

“The bigger picture should be that Mourinho and Guardiola are the best two managers in world football right now and it is great that we have them in our country and doing battle against each other at the top end of the table.”

Lineker went on to suggest Mourinho’s team are at a different stage of their development than City are under Guardiola’s watch, as he suggested the consistency being shown by the Premier League leaders will take time to come at United.

“The primary reason why City are ahead of United at this moment in time is partly to do with the genius of their manager Pep Guardiola and, more importantly, the fact that they have slightly better players across their team at this moment,” he adds.

“Mourinho is developing a team at United and we are seeing it come together piece by piece, but City have the bulk of a team that have been there for many years and you can see the fluidity they have is better because of that understanding built up over time.

“Romelu Lukaku is feeling his way in and is doing okay, Marcus Rashford has some great game and some games where he is not so effective and that inconsistency is what you expect from a kid who has just turned 20.

“Anthony Martial is enigmatic, he can be brilliant or disappear in games and the same can be said of Henrikh Mkhitaryan, but I feel City have players who tend to deliver on a more consistent basis and that explains why there is a gap at the top of the table.

“Despite that gap between the two teams in the Premier League, things are not going too badly for Mourinho and United. They will win their Champions League group by beating CSKA Moscow on Tuesday and will go into the knock-out stages of that competition with a chance to go a long way in the competition.

“United are also the most likely team to challenge City in the Premier League this season, so I feel the criticism Mourinho has been getting has been a little misplaced.”

Read more of Gary Lineker’s exclusive interview with Yahoo Sport on Wednesday.

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