Struggling to keep themselves afloat, Manchester United came through another dismal performance against Southampton, gaining a point but literally losing two.
After two goal down, one may say that a point was good enough but to lose to a team who is finding difficult to play, a point was never going to be good.
Let’s have a look at what Jose Mourinho had to say on the game
TWO POINTS DROPPED
“Yes, it was two points dropped. The result is not good so I have to say we dropped two points. If you are losing 4-0 and you get to 4-4 I would say maybe not. I think the comeback is good from 2-0 down to 2-2 in normal conditions everybody says it is a point gained, you have the game lost and you get a point, so normally you say it is a positive point, but it is a match that we want to win. It was not like we had 10 minutes to win it, we had 45 minutes, so for me obviously it was not a good result.”
SIMPLICTY IS GENIUS
“Somebody told me many years ago that simplicity is genius and I agree totally with that old manager that had that brilliant phrase. What we did so well in the last 15-20 minutes of the first half was that we chose to connect with the attacking players by transporting the ball, leaving the ball in the right moment, the right choice of pass, playing simple, accelerating the game. In the second half we went back again to that dynamic where we lose too many balls in midfield and the players, they don’t understand that simplicity is genius, especially in some parts of the pitch. They keep and keep and keep going to complicated football.”
A CHANGE OF DEFENSIVE SYSTEM
“I think Scott McTominay and Nemanja Matic did a very positive job for two midfield players and Phil Jones led that group of three in a way where we were totally in control. I would say that the only problem that we had was that the two attacking players didn’t have enough continuity, because in midfield we lost too many balls.”
OUR SPIRIT WAS GOOD
“I would say Marcus Rashford was a mad dog. He was let’s say very, very tired with little problems. He had that appetite, that desire, that fire that you need to recover the ball faster and to recover the ball higher on the pitch, but these are just details. Overall I am not happy with the result, but I cannot be critical, I think the spirit was good, I think the desire was good. I think if they were not doing better than what they did it is because they were not able to do it. In the Premier League to play a football match with only one central defender is hard.”
