Ander Herrera has a self-possession that allows rare honesty when he is asked how Manchester City's runaway title win and Liverpool potentially being European champions heightens Manchester United's need to win the FA Cup final against Chelsea.
Sitting upstairs in the academy building at the club's Carrington base, the midfielder is an articulate speaker on a range of subjects. United finished second to City but, unless Chelsea are defeated at Wembley on Saturday, José Mourinho's side will end the season without a trophy. The nightmare scenario is City's 19-point Premier League success being followed by Liverpool claiming a sixth European Cup next Saturday by defeating Real Madrid.
"If any player in the world tells you he doesn't care about what the opponents do, he is lying," Herrera says. "But I don't go crazy with that. Last season we won three trophies [counting the Community Shield], this season we can still win one – it's a 50-50 possibility. But I cannot lie to you. If I can choose at the beginning of the season who wins the Premier League and who wins the Champions League – if we couldn't be champions – I wouldn't tell you Manchester City and Liverpool."
Two years ago United won a 12th FA Cup and first since 2004 with a 2-1 win over Crystal Palace. Herrera was an unused substitute for Louis van Gaal that day. “Of course when you play you feel more happy but I was still very happy for the team,” the Spaniard says. “It was my first title in England and I knew we were building something good – I said that after the game. And I was right because the next season we won three trophies and this season we are fighting for another.”
Herrera’s spell at United has featured an almost constant fight for a starting place. When named by Mourinho in the XI for the 3-2 derby win at the Etihad in April that was his first league start for four months, though he was injured for some of the period. After a fine display Herrera has started seven of their last eight matches, including the semi-final against Tottenham, in which he scored the winner.
“When I don’t play, of course I am not happy, but I am also very happy with myself because I give everything, every day, every minute, to be on the pitch,” he says. “If I am on the pitch I’m very calm because I know I’ve done everything to be there. That’s the way to be and the way I’ll feel until the last day of my career.”
Herrera, 28, is calm when assessing Mourinho’s management style. “I don’t think if you don’t take your chance it’s the last chance you have in the season,” says the Spaniard, who has made 38 appearances this term and scored twice. “I don’t go crazy when I don’t have my best game and say: ‘Oof, I’ve lost my chance, I’m not going to play again.’
“I know some of my team-mates, and some footballers, are up and down. If I play well I’m not very happy and if I play badly I’m not very sad. My age and experience has helped me keep that balance. If you work hard and respect the ones who are playing at that moment but try to give everything you have, whether that’s five minutes or 30 minutes, sooner or later football is fair. I really believe that.”
Herrera also offers advice to Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial, who were criticised and dropped by Mourinho following the loss at Brighton two weeks ago. "I don't like to talk about what other players think because, as we say in Spanish, every person is a world, their own world.
“What I can say about them is that they are maybe two of the 20 most talented players in the world. If I could give them advice it’s if you work, then sooner or later football gives back what you have given.”
In an FA Cup tie against Chelsea in March last year Herrera impressed when man-marking Eden Hazard before being sent off after 35 minutes for a second yellow card. He did that job again in the league fixture a month later and was again effective against Chelsea's best player as United won 2-0 and he scored the second. When discussing how he took the initiative that day, Herrera illustrates why he was talked of as a potential successor to Wayne Rooney as captain.
“I was telling Marcus, Jesse [LINGARD], Paul [POGBA]and [MAROUANE]Fellaini, who were in front of me, that all the time the more difficult the ball that comes in to Hazard, the easier the job is for me,” he says. “This is not about one player. I have to do my job but football is 11 players. If one player gets free with the ball and Hazard is with me, I’m dead. That guy has to have one of my team-mates on him, making it difficult.”
Of the red card in the Cup meeting, Herrera says: “I was never going to hurt the opponent – one of the yellow cards was near the bench; they were not going to score a goal.”
Despite United’s 81 points in second place being a record deficit to the 100 of City, Herrera is optimistic United can overhaul them next year. “Next season I think the champion can be with 85 or 86 points,” he says.
“This season was an exception – it’s not normal that City have won [SO MANY]games in the last minutes – I remember West Ham at home, Huddersfield away, Southampton, Bournemouth. If they draw all those games, maybe the champions would be six or seven points less.”
Regarding what the long term may hold for him, Herrera says: “My future is the Cup final. I want to be here next season and unless the club sack me, I will be here in pre-season and fight to keep adding games to my total. In football, what today is black is tomorrow white.
“So if you think about what can happen in the summer, maybe the club signs four midfielders and they don’t want me any more. The only thing I can do is train good today and train good tomorrow. That’s all I can say – and of course if the club wants to talk to me [to extend my contract, which runs out in June 2019] I will listen to them because I am happy here.”
Helping United lift the FA Cup with a defeat of Chelsea would make Herrera even more content.
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