Ten Hag believes Man Utd are on the up ahead of Everton trip
Jose Mourinho made headlines during his tenure as Manchester United manager by aiming fire at Chris Smalling for missing games if he wasn’t 100 per cent fit. And the AS Roma boss sang from the same hymn sheet ahead of Sunday’s Serie A clash against Udinese, ripping into Smalling’s availability.
The 34-year-old defender left United after a decade at Old Trafford in 2020 and reunited with Mourinho a year later.
They enjoyed a successful partnership in their first season together in Rome, lifting the first-ever Europa Conference League.
But injury woes have taken over this term, restricting Smalling to just three appearances with a chronic knee problem.
And Mourinho’s frustrations leaked out in his press conference on Saturday, questioning Smalling’s desire to fight through his injury and help Roma push into the European places.
“In Smalling’s case, there is an injury. Even among normal people, there are those who can tolerate pain better,” Mourinho explained.
“Smalling is not a boy who knows how to play in pain. He pulls back a little. His injury is difficult, a great frustration for me because he is in the position where we need it most.
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“We have to be patient. I can’t kill myself, and I don’t have to do it for him. Let’s see when he comes back; in the last week, he hasn’t even been out of the infirmary for a minute.
“He doesn’t even know if it’s cold because he hasn’t been outside in a while. Next week, we hope that Smalling can go on the pitch, not with me but with the trainers.
“He’s late; I don’t expect him in the next two or three weeks. And I don’t know if he’ll be back before 2024. Hopefully.”
In the 2016/17 season, Mourinho guided United to two major trophies but didn’t shy away from shedding light on his annoyance over Smalling’s injury problems during the campaign.
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Mourinho told MUTV that Smalling didn’t think he could play ‘100 per cent without pain’ in November 2016, only for reports to confirm the centre-back had broken his toe.
He then took another dig in April 2017, claiming Smalling was ‘too cautious’ in his rehabilitation after suffering a problem during the March international break with England.
However, the former United No 12 publicly disputed Mourinho’s accusations later in the year, insisting no player is ever really 100 per cent.
Six years on, Mourinho has grown frustrated by the same problems as the clouds of doubt loom over Smalling’s Roma career.
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