Paul Pogba and Mourinho appeared to have a frosty exchange on Wednesday
Thursday 27 September 2018 11:49, UK
Jose Mourinho should be able to rely on his own senior players to sort out problems in Manchester United's dressing room, according to Danny Higginbotham.
Mourinho and Paul Pogba had a frosty exchange, which appeared to be about the midfielder's Instagram post, on Wednesday as he returned to training after being stripped of the Manchester United vice-captaincy.
The United manager denied reports of a bust-up between the pair but the footage from their training session seemed to suggest otherwise.
Higginbotham, who came through the academy system at Old Trafford, says Mourinho should be able to rely on his senior players to sort out any dressing room disagreements themselves rather than having "complete control" himself.
"A manager like Sir Alex Ferguson had the ultimate respect of everyone but he also had players in the dressing room who would be the manager on the pitch, the dressing room and the training ground," he told Sky Sports News.
"You can speak about all the different leaders over the years, we know them from all the different clubs. In the last six or seven years you could name four or five players from each club.
"Football is changing now, it's more difficult for managers, they have to man a lot more things now whereas before the players would take care of it."
Higginbotham believes football management is as hard as it has ever been because players themselves are less likely to confront their own team-mates.
"I think now the manager's job has become far harder than it has ever been," he added.
"The type of player that can control the dressing room, making sure everything is right and everyone is taking responsibility if someone does something wrong, those days are slowly but surely coming to an end.
"That means that players will do certain things and no one will say anything to them, not because of fear, but because of the type of characters that are in there."
