Mourinho: I Knew Silva Would Do Well

Jose Mourinho has praised the early impact made by new Hull City boss Marco Silva, ahead of Manchester United visiting the KCOM Stadium for Thursday’s EFL Cup semi-final second leg.

Silva was appointed by the Tigers on 5 January and the Portuguese began by earning a morale-boosting 2-0 FA Cup third-round victory over Swansea City. Although he lost by the same score in the first leg of the semi-final at Old Trafford, his team bounced back to earn three vital Premier League points with a 3-1 win over Bournemouth. Hull then provided stubborn opposition for Chelsea at the weekend, when the Premier League leaders were made to work hard for their 2-0 success at Stamford Bridge.

Speaking at his pre-match press conference on Wednesday, Mourinho said he had expected Silva to start well at his new club.

"I knew it," declared the United boss. "It is no surprise for me. I knew it. It is not just because there is an impact when any team changes their manager. In the next couple of weeks there is always an impact, there is always a new feeling, but then things normally go back again to the same previous situation.

"But I knew that Marco was such a good coach that the team would really improve. There is still a very difficult job in hand, still a big fight with some other five, six or seven teams to avoid relegation, but he is a very good coach."

There have already been some changes in the Hull squad, including midfielder Jake Livermore being allowed to join West Bromwich Albion last week. It has since been announced that Hull have accepted a bid in the region of £10million from Burnley for top scorer Robert Snodgrass, who has netted seven Premier League goals this season. 

When asked how difficult it is for Silva to lose Snodgrass, Mourinho preferred to focus on the players who have arrived in January – Evandro Goebel on a permanent move from FC Porto, plus Oumar Niasse and Lazar Markovic on loan from Everton and Liverpool respectively.

“They have sold, they have bought, they have got players on loan, they have got players Marco knows well, players that worked with him in Portugal, that worked with him in Greece," said Mourinho.

"The people that have come in are already connected with the manager's idea. I think that was clever at this moment.

"He does not have a lot of time to work to improve the relationship with the players but he has brought in three players that already have this connection to try to accelerate the process. They played against us very well, they played the matches they won at home very well too. They played against Chelsea very well too. So I think they're in a good situation."