Jose’s verdict on Birmingham

Jose Mourinho was pleased to see us get over the line and claim a third straight pre-season victory against Birmingham City on Saturday.

The Blues were well drilled by new boss Aitor Karanka and certainly made it tough for the players, who faced back-to-back matches over 24 hours after beating Reading 4-1 on Friday.

Having said that, we created chances - Eric Dier and Ryan Sessegnon, one in each half, the pick - before another beauty from Steven Bergwijn secured the 1-0 win on 89 minutes. Picking up the ball on the edge of the box, a quick side step saw the Dutch forward lose his defender before pinging a low curler into the bottom corner.

Jose said: “The attitude, even in a friendly... we could just stay okay with the draw and let it go, but the players deserved the victory because they trained for that, it was a training session where the last 10 minutes was probably our best period of the game.

“Normally, in friendlies, the last 20 minutes is when you just let it go, because the result is not important. But the result has some importance. The clean sheet, too, and the fact we didn’t have injuries.

“It was tough. Karanka is very good. His team is very well organised defensively, compact, lots of pressing on the low block and it was not easy.

“At the same time, we played yesterday, we changed lots of players, but in the last 20, 25 minutes we were just missing the goal. We created chances, we tried, defensively we were very strong, I don’t remember one save for Joe or Hugo.

“In the end, it’s good. It’s a pity now everyone goes for to international teams, but that’s the way it is. For many months no national team matches and they also have their competitions, so we must have empathy with them and understand they are going to take our players. We wish and pray the boys in the national teams to be back for the game against Everton without injuries.”

Next up, Watford in our final pre-season match at Vicarage Road next Saturday (5 September, 3pm).