Jose Mourinho doesn’t want Serbia to make it out of the group stage in this summer’s World Cup.
Sounds harsh, but the Portuguese has his reasons.
Serbia are in Group E along with tournament favourites Brazil, as well as Costa Rica and Switzerland.
Mladen Krstajic’s side will fancy themselves to make the last-16 but the Manchester United boss is hoping this won’t be the case.
Mourinho would rather Serbia crash out at the group stages so star player Nemanja Matic can take a holiday.
The 29-year-old featured in 49 games for the Red Devils this season, in what was a tough campaign both on and off the pitch for United.
“Brazil wins and I need Matic to go on a holiday, so Switzerland to finish second,” Mourinho said as a guest host on RT.
“I am sorry Nemanja, but you need a holiday.”
The Serbian recently admitted that it can be difficult working under Mourinho, who he followed from Chelsea.
“It is very difficult to work with him because he always wants more and more,” said Matic.
“Even if you win the league he wants to win again next season. He is like this and the players need to be ready for that.
“He is special because he wants to win always. You can see when we lose a game he cannot accept that. Probably that’s why he won more than 20 trophies in his life.
“Because at this high level, at Manchester United and where I used to play at Chelsea, the players need to be ready for that because the pressure is big.
“Everyone expects you to win every game. Obviously, it is not possible, but supporters always expect. It doesn’t matter if you are tired or not, supporters want high quality football. It is normal.”
Credit: The Mirror:
