Jose Mourinho has claimed that his whole team will be tasked with attacking, as well as defending as his Manchester United side take on Arsenal on Saturday.
The Red Devils travel to the Emirates for tomorrow’s crunch Premier League encounter, in which Arsenal could close to within a point of second spot with a win.
There has been plenty of talk in the build-up to the big match, as you would expect, and there is plenty of curiosity around whether United will be arriving to park the bus and frustrate the home side, as he is claimed to have done in previous big matches.
The Portuguese has failed to win any of his previous 10 league matches versus the top six away from Old Trafford, and his tactics have been scrutinised because of it, and it will be interesting to see whether he adopts to defend similarly to previous outings.
Jose claims that he will be attacking with all 11 players on the pitch, before seemingly backtracking and claiming that all 11 will also be relied upon to defend also…
He said: ‘When we have the ball we are going to attack with 11 players – because even the goalkeeper needs to know what to do when we have the ball.
‘And when Arsenal has the ball we are going to defend with 11 players.’
‘It depends what you think about risk. ‘In the beginning of football, the guy that decided to say “defenders” or “attackers”, this guy was bad.
‘Because in football everyone has to defend, everybody has to attack, especially in modern football.
‘So for me you can say what you want, you can analyse however you want.
‘My goalkeeper needs to know how to attack. My striker needs to know how to defend. My striker needs to know what to do when we don’t have the ball. For me it’s simple.’
Is the former Chelsea coach simply talking nonsense as he claims to try and dismiss talk of ‘parking the bus’?
Pat J