Ander Herrera says he is relishing the opportunity to work with the new Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho. The Manchester United midfielder has described Jose Mourinho as a “unique coach” and is confident of improving under him.
Herrera’s future was said to be in suspicion if Louis van Gaal had remained at the club, and last December, it was rumored that the Spaniard may have been seeking a move away from Old Trafford.
“Working with Mourinho is a unique opportunity to work with one of the best in the world,” he told Spanish radio.
“He has a widely-acclaimed method of working and I want to learn and improve. I consider his arrival to be a one-off opportunity for me to continue to develop and grow.”
Ander Herrera has struggled to launch himself at Old Trafford since arriving from Athletic Bilbao two years ago, though he remains to be an admired figure amongst the club’s supporters.
The Spanish midfielder was in and out of the side under Louis van Gaal but will hope to grab hold of every chance granted to him by the new manager.
Herrera had an “above average” time at Old Trafford till now, making a total of 41 appearances for United during the 2015/16 season, 28 of which came as a member of the starting line-up. He scored 4 goals and provided 2 assists, also having 85.7 pass success percentage. He committed more fouls than he usually did earlier, probably because of the frustration of a relatively poor season he had.
Under Jose Mourinho, Ander Herrera can improve by miles if he fits in the prospect of the Portuguese manager on a regular basis. We’ve seen Herrera delivering passes of a top-notch standard and helping the defence at the same time.
Van Gaal had theoretically given the Spaniard a fixed role of spreading the ball to the wings, and controlling the tempo at the heart of the midfield which didn’t work out great for him as he has much more and better capabilities than that.
The 26-year-old midfielder works hard on the pitch and gives it his all when his team needs it. Ander Herrera never had been a box-to-box type of midfielder before, but he certainly can be one. He has the stamina and the aggression to be on alert, and going non-stop throughout the game up and down the pitch.
Jose Mourinho is the type of manager who focuses most of his team’s game on defence. But his team never fails to deliver on the attacking set-up as well. He makes his players capable of performing both parts of the game without any uncertainty, and we have witnessed that during his time at Chelsea and Real Madrid. A midfielder playing under his guidance is basically a defensive and an attacking midfielder at the same time. Xabi Alonso, Frank Lampard and Ramires are the best examples.
With Fellaini being mostly out-of-form and Schweinsteiger losing his physical ability to be the box-to-box player as he was in Bayern Munich, Herrera can and should be given that opening under Mourinho. And with the supervision of “the special one” Ander can be converted into a box-to-box player competing with the likes of Yaya Toure and Aaron Ramsey in the Barclays Premier League.
