Jose Mourinho makes staggering admission over Man Utd defence

Jose Mourinho has denied he is actively damaging the confidence of his players – and has admitted he’s unsure what is Manchester United’s best defence.

Mourinho is a man under increasing presser as United were beaten 3-0 by Tottenham on Monday and stormed out of his press conference by demanding the media show him more respect.

Gary Neville also believes the United manager is facing the biggest challenge of his career at Old Trafford and proved he’s unsure of his best side by making six changes before hand.

The performances of Victor Lindelof in particular drew criticism and asked after the game if he knows what his his best back four is, Mourinho simply replied: “No.

“Why not?” he continued. “Because in the first game Lindelof and Bailly, and today played Jones and Smalling, but now Jones is injured, and next match it will be Smalling, with another one, and when Marcos Rojo comes he will be an option, and no, I don’t know my best back-four.”

When it was put to him that constant changes could be affecting their confidence, he again replied: “No.”

A journalist then pointed out that playing Herrera as a centre-half would surely harm Lindelof’s belief, coaxing more of an answer from Mourinho.

“You want to make the miracle of my team played so well and strategically we were so, so good and you want to try and transform this press conference into ‘let’s blame the guy’. You have to tell me what is the most important thing,” he said.

“When I win matches I come here many times and you are not happy that I won matches, and you say the most important thing is the way of playing.

“No, no, no, you have to make a decision in relation to that, because I need to know what is the most important thing. If it is is to play well or if it is to win matches? Is it t o play offensively, or is it to play for a certain result?

“Today we were aggressive, we press high, Tottenham couldn’t make two passes coming from the back, they made lots of mistakes because of our pressure high, we project the full-backs, we had Valencia and Luke Shaw arriving in dangerous positions, we miss goals with an open goal, we missed chances, we were unlucky in rebounds in both goals, we lost a game because we conceded a goal from the first corner of the match against us on minute 50-something.

“In the first-half, zero free-kicks, zero corners conceded, in minute 50-something they have one corner and score a goal, and you want, with that goal, you want to transform the story of your game. But don’t lose your time, because today I had the proof that the best judge in football are the supporters, they are the best judge.”

 

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