Los Angeles: Jose Mourinho ruled out any attempt to bring Cristiano Ronaldo back to Old Trafford after Manchester United opened their US tour on Saturday with a 5-2 rout of the Los Angeles Galaxy.
United manager Mourinho is keen to bolster his ranks further after already strengthening his squad with the additions of Victor Lindelof and Romelu Lukaku.
But the Portuguese manager poured cold water on the possibility of an attempt to prise United legend Ronaldo away from Real Madrid.
“I’m not going to waste my time thinking about players who are mission impossible,” Mourinho told reporters after the win.
The “economic difficulty” of doing the deal means it will not happen, he added.
“Ronaldo is such an important player for his club. A player of great economic power. We have not been able to find any reason that could have made us think that Ronaldo could leave.”
Mourinho added that he did not believe another Real Madrid player, striker Alvaro Morata, will end up at Old Trafford either.
“It is a shame,” he said.
“He is a player who made it to the first team with me and I have a special liking for. I enjoyed watching his evolution in Juventus and Madrid. “But we have not reached an agreement with his club and I don’t think he can end with us.”
Earlier, England striker Marcus Rashford scored twice with Marouane Fellaini, Anthony Martial and Henrikh Mkhitaryan bagging United’s other goals in a one-sided victory in front of 25,667 fans at the StubHub Center.
New striker Lukaku was unable to get in on the goals after a 45-minute debut in the second half.
Lukaku missed one golden chance four minutes into his United debut, with his shot saved by Galaxy goalkeeper Brian Rowe.
However Mourinho was satisfied with Lukaku’s “unselfish” display in leading the line.
“Lukaku is a target man, he plays with his back to opponents,” Mourinho said. “A good thing today for me is to see that he’s a team player. He’s not selfish. He’s not obsessed with goals.
“He was not that worried about himself, he was worried about the improvement of the team.”
Mourinho revealed that Rashford, who looks to have added a physical dimension to his game, was still growing.
“It’s just the natural evolution of a kid,” Mourinho said. “He’s already taller than when I arrived 13 months ago. He’s three centimetres taller. He’s put on some muscle but without any kind of specific work because his speed is his most important quality and we don’t want to lose that.”
Mourinho said the game had been “an amazing training exercise.”
“That’s what we need,” he said. “They gave us two different teams they gave people with intensity, so it was good for us.”
Mourinho was also satisfied with an experimental formation, which saw him play with a three-man central defence.
“We tried a system that is not our main system,” he said. “We were working a few days on this to try to make the players feel a new experience in a new position and I’m really happy with that.
“It’s something we have to keep working and keep improving, in case, during the season, we decided to play with three at the back. Maybe we want to do it more times.”
United travel to Utah to face Real Salt Lake in the second game of their US tour on Monday.
