LOS ANGELES • Jose Mourinho ruled out any attempt to bring Cristiano Ronaldo back to Old Trafford after Manchester United opened their American tour in Los Angeles on Saturday with a 5-2 rout of the Los Angeles Galaxy.
The United manager is keen to bolster his ranks further after already strengthening his squad with the additions of Victor Lindelof and Romelu Lukaku. But the Portuguese poured cold water on the possibility of an attempt to prise star forward Ronaldo away from Real Madrid.
"I'm not going to waste my time thinking about players who are mission impossible," he said.
Of Real's Alvaro Morata, who Mourinho has targeted, the manager said: "It is a question for Florentino (Perez, Real's president). He belongs to Madrid. Madrid has decided and we have not come to an agreement."
Earlier, 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 - including former United star David Beckham - at the StubHub Center.
Galaxy, who had failed to register a single attempt on goal in the first half, bagged two late consolation goals through Mexico international Giovani dos Santos.
United's new striker Lukaku was unable to get in on the goals after a 45-minute debut in the second half.
The Belgian missed a golden chance four minutes after coming on, with his shot saved by 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," he 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."
Rashford reminded Mourinho of his eye for goal with a confident display. The manager later revealed that the Englishman, 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" but he will surely have wanted stiffer opponents, though. The American outfit showed why they are eighth in Major League Soccer's Western Conference, 10 points behind leaders Sporting Kansas City.
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."
United travel to Utah to face Real Salt Lake in the second game of their US tour today.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, THE GUARDIAN
