Mourinho miffed
Man United manager not happy despite Europa League victory
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho accused his players of not showing an appropriate level of mental preparation during their 3-0 Europa League victory over Saint-Etienne on Thursday.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s hattrick earned United a handsome win in the last 32 firstleg match at Old Trafford, but the scoreline did not tell the full story.
Saint-Etienne finished the first half strongly and substitute Nolan Roux spurned a glorious chance to knot the score two minutes before Ibrahimovic netted United’s second goal in the 75th minute.
Mourinho said United’s first half had been “so bad” and when asked why, he pointed to a “lack of concentration”.
“I had the feeling immediately in the dressing room; it was too noisy, too funny, too relaxed,” he said.
“Then my assistants had the feeling in the warm-up, with some of the guys not really focused on getting ready.
“The game started and the first thing we did was a backpass (by Eric Bailly) to the striker to be face-to-face with Sergio (Romero, United’s goalkeeper).
“Lack of concentration. When you don’t have it, it’s difficult to recover it. In the first half, it was hard.
“Even myself on the touchline, it was difficult, the communication. I needed halftime. We were lucky to be winning 1-0. After that, it was a different story.”
Mourinho has made no secret of the fact he would rather be playing in the Champions League than its sister competition, but said that was no excuse for United’s lack of focus.
“I know the Champions League is the competition everyone wants to play, everyone wants to win,” he said.
“But we don’t play the Champions League, we play the Europa League. We had the group phase a little bit like this.
“When we needed to win, we did it.
“When the focus is there, we answered. Tonight in the first half, it was too relaxed.”
Ibrahimovic,35,tookhistally of goals against Saint-Etienne to 17 in 14 games, but the 17th hat-trick of his career was also one of his scruffiest.
Deflection
The Swede opened the scoring with a 15th-minute freekick that was awarded for a seemingly non-existent foul on him by Jordan Veretout, and his shot trickled past Stephane Ruffier via a deflection off Vincent Pajot.
Ibrahimovic’s second goal was a tap-in created by substitute Marcus Rashford and his third, with two minutes to play, came from the spot after he crumpled following a challenge by Kevin TheophileCatherine.
Ibrahimovic has scored more goals against Saint-Etienne than any other club. Despite United’s healthy advantage, he hopes to add to that success in Wednesday’s return leg.
“Every time I’ve played against Saint-Etienne, with hard work there has been a couple of goals,” said the former Paris Saint-Germain striker.
“I scored a couple of goals again tonight and hopefully I can do the same thing next week.”
Saint-Etienne coach Christophe Galtier was unable to disguise his disappointment with Czech referee Pavel Kralovec.
“The scoreline is very harsh,” he said.
“I’m disappointed by the appreciation of the game and the errors by the officials, in particular the first free kick and the penalty.
“So I’m angry and disappointed for all of my players.
“They put so much into this game and they deserved to have more to play for in the second leg.”