Souness: No Sympathy For Jose

Graeme Souness says few will sympathise with Jose Mourinho's injury problems given the size and quality of Manchester United's squad.

United ran out 2-0 winners over Everton in the absence of Romelu Lukaku on New Year's Day, ending their run of four games without a victory.

Mourinho said United were forced to "change their profile" with Lukaku out, and it was replacement Anthony Martial who curled in the opener before Jesse Lingard netted a second 10 minutes from time.

The United boss added that his side are "in trouble" with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Eric Bailly and Antonio Valencia among those joining Lukaku in the physio room, although he was unsure if it meant new players were necessary in the January transfer window.

Speaking in the Sky Sports studio after the match, Souness said United's strength in depth means few will feel sorry for Mourinho.

"Every manager wants more and better players, but Jose Mourinho is not going to get too many sympathy votes from English football," Souness said.

"You can go out and spend £200m on two players, I don't think too many people will be feeling sorry for him tonight, that two big players were missing.

"It's Man United after all. United are one of the biggest, richest clubs in the world, if not the richest club in the world.

"They carry a big squad, they're in all the competitions, but that is the price on the ticket. Injuries come along to everyone during the season. It should affect him less than anyone else.

"His complaints, or playing for sympathy, will fall on deaf ears, because it's Man United and they have a great, big squad filled with top players.

"I don't see where he's coming from with that argument."

Picking up on Mourinho's comments that United are "in trouble" while they wait for players to recover from injury, Thierry Henry added that their second-half display at Everton proved that the quality is there.

"What you have in that team is top quality - Pogba, Lingard, Mata, Martial, Rashford came off the bench. They created chances," Henry said.

"I understand when Mourinho talks about the players that were missing, but, trouble? I don't think the word would be trouble with the players that I see here.

"Everton were in trouble, not United. I'm sure he [Mourinho] would love to have all the players around him to choose from. But you still have quality there."

Credit: Skysports.com