Jose: Show cup respect

JOSE MOURINHO has accused several of his fellow Premier League managers of failing to show the FA Cup the respect it deserves.

United go to Blackburn for a fifth-round tie tomorrow with a dozen top-flight clubs – Liverpool and Everton among them – having already been knocked out of the competition after fielding weakened teams.

Mourinho admits he has dismissed the cup once – in his first season in English football – but has always regretted it and suggests some managers do not take the competition seriously.

He said: “Maybe we don’t have as many English managers with that culture as we should. Maybe

we foreign managers, not everybody studies and understands the culture of this country. Normally upsets are because of attitude, because you think it’s easy but it’s not easy. Also, the lower-league teams are getting better and better.”

Mourinho recalled the time he fielded a weakened Chelsea team for a fifth-round tie at Newcastle in 2005 because they faced a midweek Champions League clash with Barcelona before the League Cup final with Liverpool the following weekend. He said: “For me it was a lesson. I threw it away. I gambled too much. It was good, because we beat Barcelona over two legs and won the final against Liverpool. “But the feeling that I threw the FA Cup away wasn’t good. “I respect the competition a lot and Manchester United demand you are serious in every game.” Wayne Rooney, Michael Carrick, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard are all set to start for United at Ewood Park tomorrow.