Jose: "We needed to know the feeling of playing here without supporters"

Jose Mourinho felt Friday’s behind-closed-doors training friendly against Norwich City was ideal preparation for our ‘new reality’.

Our quartet of previously injured players - Harry Kane, Moussa Sissoko, Heung-Min Son, Steven Bergwijn - all returned to action in a game played over four periods of 30 minutes at the new stadium.

The eagerly awaited return of the Premier League is now less than a week away after a three-month absence with the country in lockdown to combat the coronavirus.

And what a return – a vital match against United at home on Friday (19 June, 8.15pm).

“We needed minutes, we needed to know the feeling of playing here without our supporters and to have this session with another Premier League team is the best thing,” said Jose.

“It was a different match. We were supposed to divide the team in two and play another match tomorrow (Saturday) but that was not possible, so I agreed with Daniel (Farke, Norwich manager) to have this match of four periods

“Of course, when you get into the third and fourth periods, you start making lots of changes because in the end, what we work on tactically, we do at the training ground, and today was more about competing, minutes, intensity. In the last period we played some of the young boys, even George Marsh, who was playing for Leyton Orient, but joined us for this period of preparation where we need numbers.

“It was very important to do it and to go into this last week without any injuries, because we all know in these first matches, even friendlies, there is always the risk of getting injuries.

“It was good. I thank Daniel and his players and everyone at Norwich for coming to us and to share with us this opportunity, the last opportunity for us and them before our Friday matches.”