Mourinho will accept criticism from United legends

“We didn’t see the pitch but there is a lot of water in the last (few) days, so we understand it’s not in a good condition”, he said. “No reason why”, the Catalan said.

The final match of their China tour is first Manchester derby outside the United Kingdom against City on Monday and Mourinho suggested he couldn’t wait for it to be over.

He also played down any simmering animosity between him and Guardiola, following their stints as rivals in Madrid and Barcelona respectively.

“The pitch and the conditions of my players are more important than results in pre-season”.

“But in a match it’s more hard so, again, I hope our players and City’s players go home without any kind of injury to start the competitive period well”.

“The result I want tomorrow is to go home without injuries and that is the luck I want”.

Further torrential downpours are forecast over the next 24 hours and Mourinho claims the condition of the pitch at the Bird’s Nest – which organisers believe will be fine for the game – have caused him to re-evaluate his priorities ahead of Monday’s meeting with City (kick-off 12.30pm BST).

Manchester United, meanwhile, will be heading home after Monday’s game, having already taken on Dortmund on Friday. It’s a problem for me, bad conditions for my players to train and bad conditions for my players to play.

“You have to accept that if they are happy with the team they can elevate the support, but if they are not happy maybe they can disturb and make things more hard”. He can play only in 18 matches for Manchester United at last season English Premier League.

“No Ibrahimovic, no Fellaini, no (Anthony) Martial, no Schneiderlin”.

Nevertheless, both coaches will face fresh and difficult challenges this year as they plot a way to ensure that their half of Manchester rises back to the top of English football, and it will certainly take plenty of hard work both on the pitch and in the transfer market to make it happen. But Sergio Aguero, Raheem Sterling, Nolito, Joe Hart and David Silva are among those to have joined the squad following a 1-0 loss to Bayern Munich in the club’s first preseason outing.