Ince doesn’t mince words over United
MANCHESTER United have not got what it takes to win the Premier League, says Tom Ince.
United’s hopes of becoming champions suffered a blow following this shock defeat at Huddersfield.
Jose Mourinho was left seething and questioned the attitude of his players for allowing the Terriers to notch up their first win in eight.
Now Huddersfield winger Ince, son of former Old Trafford star Paul, is convinced United lag behind both Tottenham and leaders Manchester City.
And it wasn’t all about attitude.
“They’re obviously a top-quality side but they don’t play with the same fluidity as Spurs or Manchester City,” Ince said.
“They build up quite slowly, they like to get it out wide, and we felt if we could win the ball at the back and try to exploit the space in behind – the space the full-backs leave because they go so high – then we were able to do that.
“Yeah of course it’s a shock to the system for them because obviously they’ve come here expecting to win.
“But we’re happy with the three points and it’s a great day for the town.”
First-half goals from Aaron Mooy and Laurent Depoitre stunned the visitors and a late strike from Marcus Rashford was not enough to spare United’s blushes.
United directors Ed Woodward and David Gill were in no mood to hang around afterwards and exited the boardroom within minutes of the final whistle.
To put the win into context, the last time the Terriers beat United the Queen had been on the throne for one month.
This was United’s first defeat of the
HUDDERSFIELD
season and left Mourinho questioning the heart of his players. He said: “When you lose a match because of attitude, that’s really bad. I don’t even remember a friendly match when our attitude was so poor.
“We could have had a second goal and a draw but it would have been undeserved.
“If I was a United supporter I’d be really disappointed. You can accept losing because the opponent had more quality, but not because the opponent had more attitude.”
United midfielder Ander Herrera added: “I had one chance with my head and Chris Smalling, in the last few seconds also, but when you’re playing such a passionate team, they’re all going to defend, even the crowd.
“They deserve the victory. We didn’t do enough to get the three points and we can’t think now that we’ve lost everything because we still have to play a lot of games.
“We now have two very tough Premier League games and you never know, you can win against anyone and lose against anyone.
“You want the opportunity to play again as quickly as possible and that’s what’s going to happen against Swansea.”
HUDDERSFIELD (4-2-3-1):