You know the old phrase, “mama said there would be days like this.”
Manchester United got walloped by Tottenham Hotspur at Spurs temporary home last night, and after the one-sided loss to a fellow top four contender, Red Devils boss Jose Mourinho slammed his own defending. He sounded a bit like Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp this past weekend, when the Reds boss slammed his own back line after they crashed out of the FA Cup, at the hands of lowly West Bromwich Albion.
United fell down 1-0 just 11 seconds into their match at Tottenham, and by 29′ it was a 2-0 deficit. It was a catastrophic outing all around for United, and when you have disastrous showings such as these, it’s bad for everybody.
Mourinho really got into a very heated argument with Paul Pogba on the touchline, and the cameras caught all of it. Here’s a link to the video footage which went crazy viral. Mourinho subbed off Pogba early, and then also subbed off the Frenchman’s replacement, Marouane Fellaini. Clearly, Mourinho had major issues with his midfield and how they performed.
He also had severe issues with his side’s defending as well. Speaking to the press in postgame, Mourinho didn’t hold back.
“It’s a performance that starts with a ridiculous goal,” Mourinho said of Christian Eriksen’s scoring strike, which many rules experts believe should not have stood.
“That goal after a few seconds has a big influence in the game because Tottenham can play the way they like to play,” Mourinho continued.
“In the end, we played against a very good team. Both goals were ridiculous goals, also the second was unlucky. The first goal is an accumulation of mistakes in spite of the fact that everything happened so fast.
“My players have watched the Tottenham kick-off many, many times. They know the way they do it and they also know (Harry) Kane normally starts in a position in front of the line to win some meters. We didn’t control it, lost the second ball on the ground and it was a really, really bad goal.”
The next match for United will be a Premier League tussle against Huddersfield Town at home. The Red Devils will look to avenge the upset loss they suffered in the earlier away fixture against the Terriers. Long out of the league title race competition, United now face a five way battle for the remaining three Champions League qualifications slots, with Manchester City obviously a foregone conclusion for the top position.
“Yes, the Premier League finishes for us at Old Trafford in the last match against Watford in May but we knew that the distance to the leader was already considerable, even before this match,” Mourinho said.
“Now we have us, Chelsea, Spurs, Liverpool, Arsenal, we will be there fighting for the positions.”
United are just three points ahead of third place Liverpool and fourth place Chelsea; five ahead of fifth place Spurs.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune corporation blogging community Chicago Now.
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