Jose reels off stats galore to prove ‘lying’ pundits wrong about his treatment of Rashford

JOSE MOURINHO has defended his handling of Marcus Rashford and accused critics of telling “compulsive lies”.

Two goals for England prompted some pundits to call on Mourinho to give the 20-year-old (right) more game time at Manchester United.

But the Reds boss

ROMELU LUKAKU claims too many modern footballers have become “soft” and are unable to handle criticism.

The Manchester United striker opened up on his relationship with manager Jose Mourinho, who has no qualms about having a dig at his players in public if he feels they have underperformed.

Luke Shaw, Anthony Martial and Eric Bailly are among those to have incurred his wrath of late.

But Lukaku praised that honest but tough approach to dealing with the Reds squad when they do not meet the standards demanded by their Portuguese boss.

“Sometimes footballers, we get soft a little bit,” said Lukaku.

“If I listen to players from back in the day and now, a manager cannot say what he wants to a player because you feel attacked.

“But I don’t feel attacked, because that’s who I am – I’m a tough man, but that doesn’t come from football, that comes from my background.

“My relationship with him is cool. He makes me laugh, he makes the players laugh, he’s a real family guy.

“He fights for his players, but he’s real.

“When you’re not happy, you don’t need to fake your emotions. People need to appreciate that. At least there

I don’t understand why people don’t like the realness about him. When he’s mad at me I know he’s mad at me, and I try to do what he wants so he’s happy again

are people who are real in this world, like him.

“Because most of the managers in the league, when they’re not happy they try to find a way to seem happy.

“You should respect that he wants to keep his own personality and not shy away from confrontation.

“Here, he really wants us to improve. He’s a normal guy, we get along well. He’s cool with everybody.

“What I like about him is he’s not going to fake his emotions. When he’s mad, you know he’s mad. When he’s happy, you see he’s happy.

“I don’t understand why people don’t like the realness about him.

“When he’s mad at me I know he’s mad at me, and I try to do what he wants so he’s happy again.” Lukaku, with three goals in four Premier League appearances this season, will lead United’s attack tonight at Watford, who boast a 100 per cent record after four wins from four.

The Belgium star, who joined United from Everton for £75million 14 months ago, has scored 104 Premier League goals since first arriving in England in 2011 as an 18-year-old when he moved to Chelsea.

He watches reruns of all of his games in an attempt to improve and said he is driven by the desire to be the best he can possibly be so that he will have no regrets when his career is over.

“I try to look at as many games as I can from the season before, the mistakes I have done and the points I can improve on,” said the 25-year-old (below), talking to Football Focus.

“In the first week, we come in and analyse what I want t o work o n throughout the season.

“The reason I score more and more goals, season after season, is I know my mistakes from the past, I know my strengths and I work on my strengths.

“But the little points I want to get better and it’s constant.

“Football is what, 15 years? I want to invest 100 per cent of my life into the game, so when it’s all said and done, I don’t want to have regrets.”