Something must give for 'sour' Jose Mourinho at Manchester United, says Viv Anderson

Sour and dour | Mourinho has cut a negative figure in recent weeks
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Former Manchester United and England defender Viv Anderson says something must give for ‘sour’ Jose Mourinho at Old Trafford.

After a pre-season spent lamenting his schedule, squad and players returning from the World Cup, the opening week brought respite in a win before comments from captain Paul Pogba intensified talk of a rift in the red half of Manchester.

While Mourinho continues to cut a dour figure whenever in the public eye, the recent Manchester City documentary and the continued feel-good factor at Liverpool have cast the Portuguese in a poor light when compared to his counterparts.

“Everybody is a little bit fed up of his sour attitude,” Anderson told Standard Sport. “Blaming everybody else while Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola are a joy and must be a pleasure to work with.

“Some of the things he’s done and said, even last season, left you thinking ‘why are you doing this?’

“I know he’ll be frustrated because he didn’t get the players he wanted, but he has to sort that out internally he doesn’t have to be whinging in the press every day.

“I don’t know what the outcome will be, but something has to give.”

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Since the opening weekend of the season headlines have been dominated by friction between Mourinho and Pogba, with the World Cup winner claiming he’d be fined for saying how he really felt at the club.

On the friction between captain and manager, Anderson added: “Mourinho has lots to do, no one is bigger than the club whether that is Paul Pogba or Jose Mourinho, if they have a problem they need to meet up somewhere and sort it out, because Manchester United need to be challenging on all sides.

Playing days | Viv Anderson made 69 appearances for Manchester United, all under Sir Alex Ferguson
Getty Images

“They have just got to move on,” he conituned. “We cannot spoil the Manchester United ethos. One of them has to be big enough to say ‘It’s got to be me, I’ll leave and let’s move on’.

“They have to resolve their differences, you can’t have Paul Pogba saying one thing and Jose Mourinho another. He [Pogba] does it on social media the other in an interview.

“I could imagine if this was Sir Alex Ferguson, he would get whoever it was in the office and say ‘What’s your problem? If we can’t sort it out you’ll have to leave or I’ll have to leave.’”

Viv Anderson was speaking to Standard Sport to promote the partnership between ‘Playonpro’ and ‘REDSTRIKE’, who have teamed up to support retiring professional sports men and women.

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