There's only one of them
Following a narrow loss to Barcelona in the International Champions Cup, Manchester United coach Jose Mourinho discussed the gap in quality between the world's very best players and those that he has in his squad.
Arguing that he cannot simply rely on the likes of Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese noted how he must instead formulate a team and tactical approach that is able to match these individuals across the pitch.
"With Messi and Neymar, there is only one [of each]. There are not two. [Luis] Suarez, [Andres] Iniesta, [Gerard] Pique, Ronaldo, [Gareth] Bale, [Luka] Modric, Toni Kroos, there is only one of them," he told reporters. "So they can only play for one club and not two. We cannot have them.
"They belong to the clubs. You can be working very hard tactically to improve your team, to improve your players, but some players are special and against that nature there is nothing you can do.
In the real matches you try to compensate the difference in quality with a certain tactical organisation, and with that you can win. In football it is possible for a team to be better than the sum of the parts.
"But the parts are amazing. Their relationship with the ball is amazing. You can argue about the occupation of space, tactics and compact blocks, but the player's relationship with the ball is still the most important thing.
"Even as an opponent on the bench like I am, it is beautiful to see the guys' relationship with the ball. Today, one of my players, Paul Pogba, showed the level. He showed that he belongs at that level."
Tasting defeat to the Blaugrana was also considered to be something of a positive after the earlier penalty shootout victory over Real Madrid for United.
"It's very important to lose a match in pre-season," added Mourinho. "You don't like to lose but I think it's very important.
"I think it would be very bad for us to leave the US without a defeat, playing against teams like Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester City, it would be very bad to go home with just victories. So the defeat is good.
"But I think in the game we did some very good things and we did bad things. The very good things are to keep and the bad things are to improve."
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