Jose Mourinho Claims Man United Stars Lack Personality, Desire in Another Epic Interview
Jose Mourinho has continued on his incredible run of controversial press conferences by claiming his Man Utd players "lacked personality, class and desire" during their 2-0 win over Brighton on Saturday night.
Goals from Romelu Lukaku and Nemanja Matic decided the game at Old Trafford - but Mourinho was quick to lay into his players for not carrying out his instructions on the pitch. He even claimed some of his players "would have preferred to be on the bench" in another extraordinary tirade, following Friday's incredible public showing from the Portuguese.
Matic was one of the few players to come out with any credit from his boss in the Brighton win, with the likes of Luke Shaw (again) coming in for heavy criticism. The England left back was substituted at half time by his boss despite seemingly having a decent first half.
Mourinho, speaking to BT Sport's television channel after the game, said: "I didn’t like the game. I think we deserved to win because the game was more or less in control for the majority of the time."
He went on to claim that his attacking players had been working on transitioning the ball quickly to attempt to create more in the final third - something many fans would no doubt love to see - but Mourinho didn't get much joy.
"When I spend two days working on the training pitch and attacking players are hiding and not wanting the ball between the lines I have to feel frustrated," he added. "We didn’t play the way I wanted to play, I didn’t have the reaction from all of them. I had the reaction from some of them."
"Some of them were mentally strong enough and with quality to play, and that was the reason why we won."
"When you have a team of 11 and not even a minimum of six who are playing well or want to play. When I spend 2 days working on fast build up and I see attacking players hiding behind defenders, I have to feel frustrated."
Speaking on Shaw's substitution, he claimed: "I wanted to defend better, I wanted more personality in the team because many, many times I felt Matic was an island. He was surrounded by a lack of personality, a lack of class and a lack of desire."
United have however reached the FA Cup last four, and will feature at Wembley in the middle of next month. Mourinho though will be hoping his players can "grow up" over the next month, though, if they're to reach the final of the competition they last won in 2016.
He continued to MUTV: "I'm happy that we go to Wembley again. We need more personality. Matic was by far the best player on the team. I saw many players with fear on their shoulders. Some of our players need to grow up.
"Everybody wants to play? I'm not so sure after what I saw today, I think some of them would have preferred to be on the bench."
