Jose hitting out in United blame game
that is my nature as a football professional.” Ferdinand also laid into United for a lack of effort. He said: “As a a footballer your DNA is about hard work and effort. I didn’t see that. I didn’t see them make two or three passes in succession – that’s criminal.”
And after his midweek bust-up with Paul Pogba and his dig at Phil Jones and Eric Bailly following United’s EFL Cup shoot-out defeat to Derby, Anthony Martial and Alexis Sanchez were next in the firing line.
Sanchez was axed from the United squad despite travelling down to London and replaced by fans’ favourite Martial.
Mourinho said: “Look, for how many months people are asking for Martial, and Alexis Sanchez is not playing well enough, so this week it was time for me to agree so I picked Martial and left Alexis out.
“Martial is not a player very, very focused on his defensive duties so I thought to play him as a second striker and try just to cover the area of Declan Rice would be much easier for him.”
Mourinho was also fuming about two West Ham goals – insisting Pablo Zabaleta was offside in the build-up to the first and fouled Marcus Rashford before the third.
Mourinho said: “It (the first) was an offside goal. The linesman made his mistake and we were punished with that goal.
“(The third) was a referee’s mistake but we are not a team that is very good when we lose possession and the other team counter-attacks.”
After losing their first four league games West Ham have hit back, claiming seven points against Everton, Chelsea and United.
Responding to Mourinho’s complaints about the goals, Hammers boss Manuel Pellegrini said: “Really I don’t remember feeling any danger situations in our box. I remember three or four balls that we have in the second half that we had in a lot of space so the result reflected what happened in the 90 minutes of the game, not just one thing.
“In the first three or four games we were not so assembled as a team as we are at this moment so we are improving, and that is why the results are coming now.” FOR EVERY MATCH REPORT