Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho was understandably not in a very good mood after his team lost the derby 1-3 to neighbours Manchester City on Sunday.
A fourth league loss of the season leaves United already 12 points adrift of their local rivals just 12 games into the new campaign. The Red Devils are now also seven points adrift of the top four, putting Champions League qualification for next season at risk.
Indeed, eighth-placed United are now as close to Cardiff in the relegation zone as they are to City. When this was pointed out to Mourinho during the post-match press conference, the Portuguese did not take it very well.
“I think we are not going to be relegated,” Mourinho said in response to the question. When the journalist tried to ask a follow-up question, Mourinho turned to his club’s media manager and asked, “Two questions for the same one?” The media manager then stepped in and asked another journalist to ask a question. You can watch the exchange below:
Mourinho was also not pleased when journalists kept throwing stats at him, such as the fact that City had 66% possession and 16 shots on goal, compared to United’s five. “...people who don’t understand football analyse it with stats,” he was quoted as saying by The Guardian. “I don’t go for stats. I go for what I felt in the game and it was there until minute 80-something. I consider the performance of my team one with mistakes. It is different from a bad performance.”
Mourinho also suggested that City had an easier run-in to the derby compared with his team. The Sky Blues scored six goals each against Southampton and Shakhtar Donetsk at home last week before hosing United. In comparison, Mourinho’s team travelled to Bournemouth and Juventus, and needed to come from behind to win both those games.
“The [derby] game was open in a week when they play three home games and have 6-1, 6-0 victories, relaxed, everything nice and easy and we play two matches away, difficult where the second was like a final against one of the best teams in Europe where we give everything physically, mentally,” said Mourinho.”
The Portuguese also admitted that the absence of the injured Paul Pogba from the squad on Sunday disrupted his side’s formation.
With inputs from AFP