Mourinho: I won't name a new assistant

Jose Mourinho will not name an assistant when his right-hand man Rui Faria leaves Manchester United after the Emirates FA Cup final this weekend.

The Reds boss plans to restructure his backroom staff, disband the current make-up of his off-field team and scrap the role of number two.

But he will reinstate the job when he feels Michael Carrick is ready for the position.

On the eve of Carrick’s final match in a United shirt against Watford, the club announced that Mourinho’s second in command Faria will leave at the end of the season. But in the short term, at least, Mourinho is not searching for a replacement for his long-time sidekick.

However, Carrick’s retirement and official move into the coaching team at Old Trafford means a door could open eventually for the 36-year-old.

Speaking after Sunday’s 1-0 win over the Hornets, Mourinho was asked by reporters in his press conference whether he will recruit a new number two or promote someone from within the club.

“[There will be] no number two,” the boss said. “Moving forward, I will organise my coaching staff in a way where the assistant manager figure doesn’t exist.

“I’m going to have coaches, assistant coaches, fitness coaches and a structure where we have specialists in different areas, connected to the performance by analysts. I’m not going to have an assistant manager in the sense of the word.”

But it could only be a temporary departure from the normal management set up.

“The particular reason is that I think it will be Michael Carrick in the future, when he has his badges and his pro licence, when he makes the bridge from a player to an assistant,” added Mourinho.

“People think it’s just like ‘one day I am a player, the next day I am a coach’ and it’s not like that. The brain can be ready for that but then you need the practice, the decision-making, the control, the leadership, the work in groups.”

Faria has been Mourinho’s right-hand man for 17 years from the Reds manager’s early years in Portugal, through to Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and United.

And, until Carrick stakes his claim, Mourinho doesn’t believe there is a suitable candidate to fill his shoes.

“I don’t think it makes sense when Rui is leaving after 17 years. I have nobody in the world of football to be my assistant manager – nobody,” he explained.

“So I prefer to educate people, to structure my staff in a way where there is space for their education, for their improvement, and I think naturally, when Michael has the coaching and pro licence badges, normally, with the personality he has, with the friendship, with our honesty, I think it will be for him.

“At the moment, he is my assistant and he participates in the process. Participating in the process means participating in every aspect.

“Of course I have to make the decisions but my assistants have an opinion and he has. Obviously, he will have a different opinion to those you can get from any other scout, or any analysis department.

“I can call Sir Alex [Ferguson] the intelligent one to buy him and I can call him the happy one to have him for so many years of his career as a phenomenal player.

“I’m not so sad because it’s just the end of his career as a player, but he stays with us and I’m always more connected to the person than the player; people are more important to me than players, so I’m going to have him stay with us, and because of that I’m not so sad.”

The United manager will employ some new faces also for his reconstructed backroom team.

He added: “I am going to improve my staffing in the performance level in relation to the fitness and the relation with the tactical work. So I’m going to bring some people in.”