Jose
Mourinho shoulders blame for Manchester United's 3-1 defeat to Liverpool
Under-pressure
Jose Mourinho remains confident that Manchester United will finish in the top
four of the Premier League, despite Sunday's chastening loss at bitter rivals
Liverpool leaving them 11 points off the pace.
A difficult season for the Old Trafford giants
continued on Sunday as they deservedly lost to the leaders in a
one-sided encounter at Anfield.
United were level at
half-time after Alisson Becker's blunder saw Jesse Lingard cancel out Sadio
Mane's opener, but Liverpool's pressure eventually counted as substitute
Xherdan Shaqiri's deflected brace secured a 3-1 win.
It leaves Jurgen Klopp's
men an eye-watering 19 points ahead of United after just 17 matches, but the
11-point gap to the Champions League spots is arguably even more concerning.
Asked if he was confident
of making up that margin, Mourinho said: "Yes, I think (we can).
"What gives me that
belief? It gives me the belief that we are going to make much more points in
the second part of the season than we did in the first part.
"I know we lost some
other matches but we played away at Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City -
probably the three best teams apart from Tottenham.
"But we play with
them away. I think we have more possibility to get more points in the second
part of the season than the first part."
Mourinho's side do have a
kind-looking set of matches coming up but they desperately need to up their performance
heading into the festive fixtures.
Blame me for defeat
Too many players
underperformed at Anfield, yet the United manager took the unusual step of
shouldering the blame.
"I don't think a
football team is just a squad - it's much more than the squad," Mourinho
said.
"I am really, really
happy with the players that I had on the pitch, with their attitude, with their
effort. I am more than happy.
"And because I am
more than happy, I assume the responsibilities of the defeat and I want them to
be hidden behind me. They gave absolutely everything. Honest people, they gave
absolutely everything.
"Eric Bailly knows
he plays one minute before the game (because of Chris Smalling's injury in the
warm-up).
"(Victor) Lindelof
trained one day to play, (Diogo) Dalot trained one day to play.
"(Matteo) Darmian
trained one day to play, Ashley Young played with a sore ankle and I could go
on, and on, and on.
"I am happy with the
players' commitment and the players' attitude.
"I feel really sorry
for them because I don't think their effort deserve to lose the game we did.
"If we concede two
goals in first 20 minutes I would say 'OK, the best team just killed us in the
first 20 minutes'.
"To lose the way we
did in the moment we did; I feel sorry for the boys."
Mourinho admires Reds'
intensity
Mourinho defended hapless
Romelu Lukaku's display - "I think he was positive" - and his
decision to leave Paul Pogba, not so long ago the world's most expensive
player, on the bench.
The United boss did,
though, admit his side struggled with Liverpool's fast, intense play - the
result of the injury issues which have long hampered the squad.
"We have lots of
problems related with physicality," Mourinho said.
"We have lots of
players that I could consider injury-prone because some of our players are
always injured - and it's not with me, it was before me.
"If you look to the
stats with Mr (Louis) van Gaal and David (Moyes), we have players that are
permanently injured. When you are permanently injured, physicality is very
difficult to get.
"Then there are
qualities that a player has or doesn't have. You cannot improve, you cannot
make them have.
"I gave you an
example. (Andrew) Robertson, Mane, (Mohamed) Salah, (Georginio) Wijnaldum,
(Naby) Keita, Fabinho - they are physical players.
"On top of that they
are good technically - I also have lots of good players technically but we
don't have many players with that intensity or physicality
