Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1035530
maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 3 OCTOBER 2018 21 SPORTS FOOTBALL SPORTS FOOTBALL JOSE Mourinho's problems at Manchester United appear to be getting worse by the day as the under-pressure Red Devils boss has fallen out with both Alexis Sanchez and Paul Pogba in recent weeks. The Red Devils have started the new season poorly, and already find themselves nine points behind title rivals Manchester City and Liver- pool after just seven games played. Off the pitch things are arguably worse. Mourinho has ongoing problems with both Paul Pogba and Alexis Sanchez, and was even in- volved in a frosty exchange with the France World Cup winner in training last week. Mourinho has had on and off problems with Pogba for nearly a year now, so this latest spat comes as little surprise, but his issues with Sanchez are a relatively new thing. The Portuguese landed the 29-year-old from Arsenal back in January, swapping the out-of-favour Henrikh Mkhitaryan for the talented forward. It looked to be a master- stroke from Mourinho, who even beat Manchester City to the world-class forward. But so far things haven't gone to plan. While Sanchez is consid- ered to be a better player than Mkhitaryan, he hasn't come close to reaching the levels he'd regularly hit when at Arsenal. He is believed to be get- ting increasingly frustrated with Mourinho's tactics, and doesn't like the fact he won't play him in his preferred po- sition down the middle. Sanchez was hooked on the hour mark in Manches- ter United's 1-1 draw with Wolves, and was heavily criticised for his lacklustre display. Pogba leaped to his defence at the time, telling the press: "What you have to know about Alexis is that he is a hard worker. He trains very well, he always tries to help the team, talks with the team and everything. "He will get used to it. When you play a long time with another team and you play different football in that other team, you have some kind of adaptation that you have to have. "It's not that he is playing bad. We know that Alexis Sanchez can bring a lot and I'm sure he will. "But he's not playing bad and he keeps being posi- tive, you know, so that's the good thing we have to think about." Mourinho wasn't so sym- pathetic to his poor dis- play, and is believed to have slammed Sanchez in front of his team-mates in the chang- ing room He then opted to drop him from United's squad for their trip to West Ham, meaning the Chilean was even unable to come off the bench in the 3-1 defeat. Mourinho tells star he may 'never play for club again' MANCHESTER UNITED WOES Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho