Mourinho criticises players for ‘lack of desire’ after cup win

Oli Fisher

Jose Mourinho blasted his side for a ‘lack of desire’ as Manchester United beat Brighton 2-0 at Old Trafford.

Alexis Sanchez started a Manchester United match on the bench for the first time since his January arrival, with Paul Pogba another among the substitutes for the FA Cup quarter-final against Brighton.

The 29-year-old acquisition from Arsenal has flattered to deceive since his high-profile arrival and was part of a strong-looking bench named by United manager Jose Mourinho.

“Lack of personality, lack of desire,” Mourinho told reporters.

 “The performance was not as good as the result, the result was better than the performance. We deserved to win clearly, we had the match under control but we didn’t play well. We didn’t play as I wanted them to play, we didn’t play as I prepared the team to play.

“Sometimes there is a contradiction between what you work on in the past two days and what you did on the pitch. That is more frustrating than the result. Once more I wasn’t happy with the connection in the build up. I blame everybody.

“I blame the defenders in possession because they always made the easy decision to play square passes, not looking forward, vertical or between the lines. I blame the attackers because their movement for that connection, they were too scared to do it.”