Jose Mourinho will 'not cry' over injuries despite Didier Drogba being his only fit striker for United clash
Chelsea's Didier Drogba celebrates after scoring a penalty during their Champions League Group G soccer match against Maribor at Stamford Bridge
Jose Mourinho said that he “will not cry” over injuries after Loic Remy picked up a muscle problem in tonight’s 6-0 Champions League win over Maribor to add to the Chelsea manager’s injury worries ahead of Sunday’s trip to Old Trafford.
Already without Diego Costa, the Chelsea manager now has just Didier Drogba for from his senior strikers for the game against Manchester United. Drogba scored in the resounding victory over Maribor and is now favourite to start the game, five months short of his 37th birthday.
Mourinho said: “I cannot speak about Man United. I can speak about ourselves. We are playing well, we are getting good results. We don't cry on injuries. It's our philosophy, we don't cry. We just think one injury means an opportunity for somebody else. We cannot hide. In this moment we have some problems with players that are not available to play. We will prepare the game Thursday, Friday, Saturday to try to be at our best possible level against an opponent which we respect very, very much.”
Drogba said that he was ready to play if selected. He scored the 158th Chelsea goal of his career, the first of his second spell at the club, from a first half penalty. Drogba said: “I asked him [Eden Hazard, for the penalty] and he said ‘Yeah’. This is the spirit we have in this team. We share goals we are happy when everybody is scoring. It is good for my confidence.
“We have a lot more quality than the previous teams. The team is younger. They still have room for improvement but the challenge is fantastic. The winning spirit is coming, they deserve to score goals to win games together as a team. It’s good.”
Mourinho said that his team had been eager to score more goals rather than close the game down. “We are playing well, we are confident. We are solid, we found a good balance. We have now the players adapted to play the game that we were preparing last year, the style that we were preparing last year that we couldn't manage to do in a perfect way.
“It was 3-0 at half-time, many, many, many occasions you stop, you just control. They kept enjoying the game and playing and trying to score. Being happy on the pitch. They are in a good moment.”
On Loic Remy, Mourinho said: “He has a problem in his groin, I don't know. Normally a muscular problem is a muscular problem so a couple of weeks. I was not expecting Didier to play for 75 minutes but he had to come on. Now he has to improve his condition, we know the player he is and we know he can still give us a lot.”
