Mourinho warns of tough season if Man Utd don't strengthen

AFP  |  London 

has warned Manchester United face a "difficult season" if they do not strengthen their squad before the shuts on Thursday.

The only arrivals at Old Trafford this summer have been Brazilian Fred, teenage full-back Diogo Dalot and back-up

In sharp contrast, finalists have spent more than 170 million pounds (USD 220 million) on new signings including Brazil's and midfielders Fabinho and Naby Keita.

"My knows what I want and I still have a few days to wait and see what happens," the Portuguese told MUTV ahead of his side's pre-season friendly defeat by Bayern on Sunday.

"The other clubs who compete with us are really strong and already have fantastic teams. Or they are investing massively like Liverpool, who are buying everything and everybody.

"If we don't make our team better it will be a difficult season for us." United were beaten 1-0 by Bayern at the Arena, five days before their campaign begins at home to

Mourinho, without some key players due to their involvement at the World Cup, including Paul Pogba, and Jesse Lingard, brought on academy prospects James Garner, Axel Tuanzebe, Tahith Chong and during the second half.

At full-time, he compared his youthful team to the raft of talent at Bayern's disposal, including experienced players such as and

"Finally, it's over. Finally, such a difficult pre-season is over," Mourinho told mufc.com.

"The players were, once more, brilliant. They could not have done better than what they did. (It was a) fantastic experience for the boys."

Mourinho, who has been linked with moves for Tottenham defender and centre-back before the shuts, selected Alexis Sanchez as in

Reports in on Sunday said United have also expressed an interest in Bayern defender

scored the only goal of the game in Munich, heading home from a second-half corner.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Mon, August 06 2018. 16:20 IST