Manchester United lost to Brighton & Hove Albion 3-2 today in a match that was more lopsided than that sounds. The Seagulls scored three times in the first half Sunday, which was quite an anomaly given how United didn’t concede three goals in an entire Premier League game last season.
So let’s take a spin through the latest Manchester United news, notes and other items making the rounds on the internet right now in the wake of this disaster.
-Last season, Paul Pogba had a lot of issues with consistency, especially so in league action. In short, he just seemed to have trouble getting amped and truly giving his all against some of the lower table sides. Today, he conformed to that narrative as he made a very honest admission.
“They had more hunger than us,” Pogba said in an interview with Sky Sports. “I put myself first, that my attitude wasn’t right enough. We made mistakes we shouldn’t make.
“We were playing at home last week (the season opening win over Leicester) and that’s different.”
“Different teams, different tactics. I know you cannot always play very, very good. The attitude always has to be very good and we missed that.”
As for Jose Mourinho, his reaction was a bit different from what we’ve come to expect from him. He refused to throw anyone under the bus, like he has in the past.
“Look, when I speak about individual displays and am critical with my players, you don’t accept it,” Mourinho said in his interview with Sky Sports after the loss.
“The press and pundits criticize when I go in that direction. I’ll analyze my players’ performances when they are very good. When I can’t do that, don’t push me to the other side.”
While Mourinho didn’t have any negativity for his own players, he did slam the Manchester City Football Club over how they portrayed the first meeting between the two clubs last December. Mourinho says the narration in the film that preluded the derby lacked class, and he even went so far as to say “money cannot buy class.
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola agrees with Mourinho in the idea that money cannot buy class, but he says the film, “Manchester City: All or Nothing,” was not disrespectful.
“I think we lived an amazing season with cameras. We did it for ourselves,” said Guardiola. “It is Jose’s opinion.”
“I don’t agree with Jose in terms of disrespectful. This was not our intention – it was filming last season. It is a club trying to grow, trying to win titles. We did it for ourselves and our fans to see what happens inside the locker room. Other guys will say ‘we like’ and other guys will say ‘no’.”
As we said earlier, Mourinho has done an about face when it comes to slamming his players, and he even gave some high praise to a couple of them. Mourinho talked about all the positivity that Fred brings to the club, and noted the growth and development in Andreas Pereira.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, is currently a regular contributor to SB Nation, WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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