Jose Mourinho stressed on the loss against West Ham courtesy of two faulty decisions made by Referee. First one being the offside not given during the constructive play on right flank by West Ham and the second being a foul committed on Rashford by Zabaleta before Arnautovic’s finished the match 3-1. With VAR being available the Boss felt technology could have been used.
Here are some assessments made by him:
On the kind of start team had!
“We needed to start well. We were a team that comes with that mental fragility of a bad result [the Derby match]. Coming here and after five minutes we were losing 1-0, which is not the best way to start. The goal was offside and, last Tuesday with the VAR, it would not have been a goal. Then in the first half we had a good reaction but an own goal makes 2-0. An own goal where we knew Yarmolenko is very, very left-footed, we had to cover that side, we had Matic on the ball and Luke Shaw and Lindelof very close by, but we were not aggressive enough to close that shot and then we were losing 2-0.“
On team’s performance in second-half
“In the second half we took a little bit of time to react, but then we did. Their goalkeeper made a couple of good saves, their centre-backs had a fantastic match. Congratulations to the scout that found the 21-year-old kid, [Issa] Diop – a monster who dominated everything in the duels.
The third goal killed the game and mentally killed the team that had a reaction and had a little bit of reward for that reaction. Not the pride – it didn’t kill the pride. I could see some of the players going until the end. I could see brave McTominay and Smalling trying to go forward and bring the ball, to go to set-pieces. But the third goal, mentally, was a big blow for the team.”
Who played the best game for United?
“Mctominay was the best [of the back three]. He had a fantastic attitude, he’s aggressive and brave, and he has something that we thought was important for us: he has quality on the ball. He knows how to play football, he’s technically good, he can bring the ball into offensive areas, so I’m really happy with the job the kid did.”
On the match against Valencia
“For myself, speaking of my own feelings, I am really happy that we have a game on Tuesday. I am really happy that I now go to the train and I start immediately thinking about training tomorrow, about the match on Tuesday and I prefer that than playing next Sunday, with one week of these bad feelings. I look forward to that match on Tuesday and I hope the majority of the players have this same kind of mentality, and that they are looking forward to Tuesday.”
