Jose Mourinho admits he is keen to give Eric Bailly more minutes than most players during Manchester United’s pre-season campaign so that the defender can improve his communication on the pitch.
The 22-year-old was the Portuguese’s first signing at United, joining in a £30 million deal from Villarreal.
The Ivory Coast international impressed in United’s 2-0 victory over Wigan Athletic on Saturday but Mourinho says it was just the start of what will be a very active pre-season campaign for the defender due to his inability to speak English.
"It is the first time he wears a heavy shirt like the United shirt is," the United boss told MUTV.
"He can't speak English, he just communicates with the ones that are French-spoken or Spanish so for him step by step that's the reason why I will give him more than 45 minutes.
"He's one of the players who I want to give 65, 70 [minutes] because more than others [he] needs to play, needs to feel it and needs to start communicating.”
Mourinho also revealed he will try and mould Bailly in a similar way to how he developed Raphael Varane during his time at Real Madrid.
"I will give him everything to try to make him better and better and better like I did previously with other very young central defenders I had in my hands, like for example [Raphael] Varane,” he added.
"I will try to make him the best I can but the reality is that he showed all the potential that we saw when we decided to buy him."
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