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“Obviously there are other good strikers in football but the Premier League is a very specific habitat, a difficult habitat, normally players need some time to adapt but Lukaku has played in the Premier League for the last four or five seasons so now he comes to a club with a different responsibility than Everton or West Bromwich Albion.
“I think he comes in the right moment because he is young but still has years of experience with the Premier League and Belgian national team. It’s his first CL competition which was his main motivation so the fact we qualified also played an important role.”
United suffered a series of frustrating draws at Old Trafford last season when they failed to convert a plethora of chances and Mourinho hopes that will change.
“Let’s try, he’s not a player that participates a lot in the build-up he’s a player that normally plays in the last third and we had so many opponents, especially at Old Trafford, that decided to defend in their low block, their defensive third, playing with lots of defensive players and we had in Zlatan that target man but his qualities are also dropping back and participating.
“But for the characteristics of the Premier League we need a target man, which is not [Anthony] Martial, [Marcus] Rashford, the clear nine, the one that is comfortable to play in the box and the defensive line. We thought Romelu would be a good option for us.”
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Mourinho said he rang Lukaku when a deal was close to completion to reassure him about his importance and insisted their relationship was strong, despite the Portuguese selling the striker to Everton in 2014 when in charge of Chelsea.
“I didn’t negotiate [the deal], it was Mr [Ed] Woodward [United’s executive vice chairman] who negotiated with Romelu, his agent and the Everton board.
“The only thing I did was to call him when the situation was almost there just to guarantee him that he would be an important player in my team.
“It’s quite a great experience the fact we worked together already for a few months and during the time when I was at Chelsea and Man United and he was at Everton our relationship was always very close despite it not working well for us together.
“He’s intelligent, he’s polite, we keep the contact, the feeling and now we are back together in different moments and I have no doubts it is going to work.
“I told him [and fellow new signing] Victor Lindelof on the day we started they were very lucky to belong to such a group because the group is a really special group and is amazing for a player to change clubs. That’s what they are feeling after three or four days.”
Meanwhile, Mourinho has claimed United then Arsenal were the most successful Premier League clubs last season after title winners Chelsea and has praised the Arsenal board for showing strength of mind to give his long-time nemesis Arsene Wenger a new two-year contract in the face of supporter opposition. Arsenal won the FA Cup last term but Wenger faced frequent calls to go.
“I think after the champions, Chelsea, I think Manchester United is the second club that we can say was most successful last season and Arsenal the third, for me that’s absolutely clear,” he said.
“To finish second, third or fourth [in the Premier League] is like finishing first, second, third of the losers because there is only one winner. Arsenal won a competition, we won two-and-a-half, I like to say, so the other clubs won nothing so they have to improve.
“It’s fantastic treatment [of Wenger by Arsenal], that’s what every manager wants, the club to be strong, to be strong enough to make their own decisions and to forget the media and pundit opinion and supporters’ strength and Mr Wenger got what every manager would like, a strong club, you stay two more years of contract, and have the conditions to work and try to win titles.”
Source:Sports.yahoo
