Jose Mourinho has bemoaned his side’s lack of intensity and understanding in midfield as Manchester United failed to clinch three points against Southampton.
The Red Devils travelled to the St Mary’s Stadium on Saturday evening but failed to impose their style on the match and could only muster a point, and Mourinho has conceded that his side overcomplicated their passing in midfield.
Mourinho’s current predicament. Five things you need to know…
- Man Utd played out 2-2 draw with Southampton.
- Mourinho forced into changes and deployed makeshift XI with key players injured.
- Currently 16 points off rivals Man City and six off the top four having played one more match.
- Face crucial crunch clash against Arsenal next.
- Mourinho will be without captain Ashley Young who picked up his fifth yellow card against Southampton.
United fired a blank last weekend against Crystal Palace and have now failed to win in their previous three Premier League matches, though Mourinho has highlighted where he think the problems in his squad are.
Speaking after the match Mourinho said: “We lost so many balls in midfield and lost so many balls in our transitions to the final third. It was difficult to have any continuity throughout the match.
“We played so well in the final 15 minutes of the first half because we were connecting with the front two [Lukaku and Rashford] by accelerating the game, making the right choices, but then in the second half we reverted back to the dynamic of losing too many balls in midfield.
“They don’t understand that simplicity is genius. They kept overcomplicating the match.”
Mourinho went on to criticise the fighting spirit of his side, claiming that his squad significantly lack “mad dogs” though he did highlight the positive mentality of Phil Jones.
He added: “In respect to my players we don’t have too many mad dogs, players who always bite the ball on the pitch, so [the loss] was nothing to do with the system.
“Phil Jones led the group of three centre-backs, but our two attacking players didn’t have support because we kept losing the ball in midfield.
“We needed to improved the simplicity in midfield, play one-touch two-touch, but we just could not connect to our front two.”
Mourinho’s Matic experiment fails miserably
Jose Mourinho was forced into making a number of changes at the St Mary’s Stadium on Saturday, deploying a back five system which included Scott McTominay and Nemanja Matic in the heart of central defence.
Prior to the match Mourinho told BT Sport: “I have only one [centre-back].
“I would like to have Nemanja Vidic, but no Nemanja Vidic only Nemanja Matic – he’s a midfield player. [Chris] Smalling has a pain in his foot so he is not available to play, Eric Bailly has a pain in his back so he’s not available to play.
“[Marcos] Rojo trained yesterday for the first time with the group – he’s not ready to play, he’s ready to help. [Victor] Lindelof has an important injury. Only centre-back we have available to play is Phil [Jones].”
The move proved rather calamitous as United found themselves 2-0 down after just 20 minutes, with both McTominay and Matic looking rather uncomfortable and very out of place in unnatural positions.
The duo can perhaps be excused to a certain degree, given they were playing out of position, but this was not a system or formation theat favoured United, as they lacked the requisite intensity to really thwart the Saints, as well as the requisite resolution to stifle their attack.
The post Mourinho reveals the reason Man Utd drew with Southampton appeared first on Squawka News.
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