Manchester United – Jose Mourinho was naturally disappointed to have
suffered his first competitive defeat as Manchester United manager on
Saturday, after rivals Manchester City claimed a slender victory at Old
Trafford. Here are the main points from the manager’s post-match
interviews…
First reflections
“What did I make of today? I think in the first
half they were much better than us. We started the game badly. We
started the game with some players really below the normal level, in
terms of their concentration, of their mental ability to play a game of
this speed because you need to be sharp in the way you think, the way
you play. In a match of this dimension, when you have three or four
players not at that level, you pay for that. The team paid for it.”
Derby of two halves
“In
the first half, for 35 minutes it was City in control, City deserved to
be in front. In the last period of the first half we scored a goal and
we could immediately score again but I think that was outside the
context of the game in the first half. The second half was completely
different, and when they brought on Fernando, they were feeling what
everybody was feeling, that we were in control. We were much more
dangerous, we had our chances to equalise and who knows what could
happen if we had equalised. For 45 minutes, we fought really hard. We
tried everything, took lots of risks and deserved a different result.”
Deciding factors in defeat
“I
think we were punished by a lot of things. First thing: our first half –
the way we started, some individual performances made the team look
fragile. We were also punished by two decisions of Mark [Clattenburg],
because even the best referees can make mistakes and he made two
mistakes. The first one is Bravo [on Rooney] – it’s a penalty and a red
card. If any player does that outside the box, it’s a direct free-kick
and a red card, so inside the box it’s a penalty and a red card. But the
referee maybe thought of the consequences of that because the
consequences would be a completely different game and he didn’t want to
take that decision, which would be very important. And the second one is
another penalty – Otamendi, with his elbow. He tries to stop the cross
that’s going in front of him but the cross goes behind him, he’s looking
to the ball and brings the arm and elbow back, and it’s another clear
penalty. So we were also punished by that.”
Right team selection?
“Look,
honestly, I had two or three players in the first half who, if the game
was played now and I know what is going to happen, then I wouldn’t play
them. But this is football and sometimes players, they disappoint
managers, and sometimes players, they give us great surprises. I thought
because of the characteristics of the game we could hurt them playing
with some individuals with some qualities, they didn’t give what I want.
Is it their fault? Is it my fault? It’s my fault because I’m the
manager and it’s always my fault because it’s always my choice.”
Positives to take from the second half
“The
positives I take are the spirit of the group and the mentality to play
the second half in the way we played it, taking enormous risks against a
team that was defending and was waiting for a chance to
counter-attack.”
Two substitutions at half-time
“I
would have done more if I could, because I was far from happy with the
performance and I had to try to change the direction of the game, which
we clearly did, but we didn’t get the compensation of what we did in the
second half. I was feeling [we would score again] until the last
minute, like we did at Hull City. When you feel that the team is there
and ready to give everything until the last second, you are always
waiting for something. And in the last 15 minutes, against a very good
team obviously, we gambled in such a way that we left one against one in
defence and went forward with everybody else to try to take to City a
situation of big pressure, which we did. But again we did not get the
compensation we deserved. In the first half we were punished like we
deserved, but in the second half we didn’t get the compensation we
deserved.” More
Source: Manutd.com
