Mata urges shaken United team-mates to ‘keep going’

Juan Mata attempted to strike a defiant note ahead of Manchester United’s Boxing Day clash with Burnley today despite a pre-christmas week that put a major dent in their season’s ambitions.

Mata insisted United would “keep going”, starting against Sean Dyche’s side this afternoon, yet he admitted to anger and frustration in the camp after Saturday’s 2-2 draw at 10-man Leicester City. Those emotions came to the fore in Jose Mourinho’s post-match press conference with the United manager accusing his players of childishness in a game that ended with a dramatic stoppage-time equaliser from Leicester’s Harry Maguire.

“You have to keep going, especially in Christmas time, we play every two or three days,” urged midfielder Mata, who scored both of United’s goals.

“Of course now we feel frustrated and angry but we need to be calm, rest and think about the next game and hope to finish the game with a much better feeling. We didn’t kill it and we should have. It feels like a defeat. We get a point but it feels like a loss because we were so close to winning.”

Mourinho pulled no punches in his post-match assessment.

“It is as bad as a defeat,” said the Portuguese. “Sometimes you take a point and you say ‘OK’ and you accept it as it was hard to get a positive result.

“That is not the case. It is a game to win easily. There was a lack of maturity. I cannot stop the game and give a team talk. For the last two minutes the players had to immediately adapt, to read the game, which they didn’t, so we had childish decisions in front of goal and bad decisions as it was not just about the goals we missed, or dribbling or hitting the post.”

Mourinho will check on the fitness of Chris Smalling ahead of today’s game but the England defender is a major doubt after he ended Saturday’s game struggling badly with a groin injury.