Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho begs Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard, Romelu Lukaku and Marouane Fellaini to cut holidays short
Old Trafford manager wants his World Cup stars back in his squad to help boost team in miserable pre-season
DESPERATE Jose Mourinho has begged his Manchester United players to cut short their holidays and help the team.
United have failed to win a single game in pre-season and were thumped 4-1 by Liverpool on Saturday in the International Champions Cup.
Many of Mourinho's squad are finally enjoying a break from football having played an entire season and World Cup.
Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard, Romelu Lukaku and Marouane Fellaini are all away having reached the final and semi-final of the tournament with France, England and Belgium respectively.
Pogba, Lukaku and Fellaini are in Beverly Hills while Lingard is resting in Miami.
Three Lions pair Marcus Rashford and Phil Jones are set to report to Carrington this week to get match fit for the new season.
Mourinho has urged his other holidaying stars to follow their example.
He said: "I hope that the boys on deserved holidays take care of themselves a bit and that somebody wants to do what Rashford and Phil Jones decided to do, which is to be back a bit earlier to try to help the team because for the beginning of the season we are going to be in trouble."
Ashley Young ignored Mourinho's plea to return from holiday after his boss sent out an SOS last week.
United finish their tour of America with a friendly against Real Madrid in Miami on Wednesday before flying to Germany to face Bayern Munich in their final game on Sunday.
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Ander Herrera slammed the club's pre-season schedule by comparing it to the hectic Christmas period.
Injuries to Nemanja Matic and Antonio Valencia have added further strain to players having to over-exert themselves before the campaign has even kicked off.
Mourinho has hit out at the board for not buying him enough new players.
United have signed £52m Fred from Shakhtar Donetsk, £19m Diogo Dalot from Porto and Stoke’s second-choice keeper Lee Grant.
Mourinho - now favourite to become the first managerial casualty of the season - moaned: "I would like to have two more players. I think I am not going to have two, it is possible I’m going to have one.
“I gave a list to my club of five names a few months ago and I wait to see if it’s possible to have one of these players.
“If it is not possible we keep fighting and working and believing in the players that we have.”
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