Man Utd rumour revealed by pundit: 'This is what I have heard about Jose Mourinho'

talkSPORT host and Manchester United fan Goldstein was at Old Trafford at the weekend to watch the 0-0 draw against Crystal Palace.

While there, Goldstein was told about a secret conversation Jesse Lingard is said to have had with the United boss.

It’s claimed Lingard ‘knocked on Mourinho’s door’ and told him that he no longer wanted to play out wide and instead wanted to be played through the middle.

Mourinho duly granted the England man’s request but he was pulled off after an hour during a frustrating afternoon.

Lingard was then back out wide for the 1-0 win over Young Boys in the Champions League – a game he was also subbed off in.

Goldstein revealed on talkSPORT: “I heard a story at the weekend when I was at Manchester United – and I don’t know if it’s true or not – but the story is Jesse Lingard knocked on Jose’s door in the week.

“He said ‘I don’t like playing out wide, I want to play in centre-midfield, just behind, in the number 10.’ This is what I hear.

“I don’t know if it’s true or not but he’s playing him there at the weekend against palace. He gave him 60 minutes – then took him off. He played okay.

“That’s the pressure that Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford are under. If they don’t perform in the first 30 minutes, the first 45 minutes, they’re off and their place might be gone for the next two or three weeks.

“Look at Alexis Sanchez, he wasn’t even in the squad. Ander Herrera wasn’t in the squad at the weekend and wasn’t in this one. If you give players time in the team, they won’t be under the cosh every time they get through on goal.”

Mourinho slammed water bottles into the ground in an expression of “relief” after United snatched a last-gasp winner to reach the Champions League last 16 – an opportunity the manager used to remind “lovers” of his enviable continental record.

Young Boys looked set to frustrate, and perhaps even embarrass, the Old Trafford giants on home soil on Tuesday, displaying composure, confidence and camaraderie sorely lacking in their opponents.

But, not for the first time this season, Mourinho’s men dug deep and scored a late winner, with Marouane Fellaini turning home to secure a 1-0 victory and progress to the Champions League round of 16 with a match to spare.

The United manager kicked a water bottle carrier and threw another into the ground in celebration at a goal that means they head to Valencia next month with progress assured after the Spaniards lost at Juventus on Tuesday.

“Relief,” Mourinho said of his celebrations. “Frustration before that and relief with the goal.

“I think we didn’t play for that, we didn’t play for 0-0. We didn’t play to be in trouble until the last minute, so frustration.

“I was not unhappy with the players. Not at all.

“Frustrated with the fact that we couldn’t score, yes, but my players were very tired at the end and that’s what I love – I want them to be very tired.

“It means that they give everything, and they did that, with moments of very good football, moments of quality, moments of hypothetical beautiful goals and then also with moments of pressure, moments of lack of confidence, that frustrate us.

“I have to reunite the goal we scored with David De Gea’s save. I think without David’s save, no winning goal.

“But, in the end, we qualify in a very difficult group with one match in hand, suffering a lot, but we did it.”

It was hardly the inspiring response United had hoped for after Saturday’s tepid 0-0 draw with strugglers Crystal Palace, but Mourinho still used the Group H win as a chance to stick two fingers up at the doubters.

“Let me send a message to my lovers and say that I played Champions League for 14 years and I qualified 14 times,” he said. “And the two years where I didn’t play Champions League, I won the Europa League twice, so in 16 years, 14 times I qualify and twice I play Europa League and I won.

“Just a little curiosity for my lovers and the lovers of the stats.”