After losing back to back matches, Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has expressed his concern over his side’s lack of morale. United lost to Feyenoord in a Europa league group match 1-0 with the solitary goal scored by Tonny Vilhena.
“When you lose matches, there are no miracles in terms of the players’ soul,” he said. “You win matches, people are happy and full of confidence. You lose matches and people are sad and feel it. But of course I’m here not to let them be in a negative mood or in a negative period because we lost two matches – two matches where we didn’t play well for 90 minutes but two matches where we deserve a better result.
Mourinho said there is no need to panic as the season has just started. United will play Watford and Mourinho has a huge task to plift his team’s confidence.
“When we won the Community Shield and the first three Premier League matches I was not on the moon, I was not saying we were a phenomenal team and we are going to destroy every opponent. I said: ‘Yes, it’s a good start, yes, a very good start,’ but I was never on the moon,” he said. “I know the situation is not a case of clicking your fingers and everything is perfect, but to be honest I think we didn’t play phenomenal matches in these two defeats but to lose both I think is a punishment for the team because I think we deserved more.”
United now have lost back to back 4 away matches in Europe. It seemed that Vilhena was in offside position at the time of scoring and according to him the goal should have been disallowed.
In the first half we did not have an especially ambitious attitude,” said the Portuguese. “I’m not saying bad but I’m not saying with the ambition you need to win football matches. We were not trying to win, we were just in control of the game and waiting for the possibility to win or not to win. The second half was different, when we were trying to win and Feyenoord were trying not to lose. Then they scored the goal which I don’t think we deserved. And double unlucky because he was offside.”
On being asked about Paul Pogba who was signed by United from Juventus for a record-breaking sum of €105 million (£89.3 million, $116.4 million) Mourino answered, He was like the team. In the first half they were in control, but they were playing half-pace. In the second half was when they were increasing their intensity and it was when they conceded the goal.”
