Mourinho: £300m is not enough to
NORTHERN FOOTBALL CORRESPONDENT Another day, another draw, another Jose Mourinho tirade. Not for the first time this season, Burnley left one of the Premier League’s leading lights sporting a bloody nose after another successful away day but, by the end of a chaotic afternoon, it was Mourinho landing the heaviest blows.
No target was spared – his players for conceding “another ‘S’ [s---] goal”, the United board for not spending enough as the club’s rivals, not least Premier League leaders Manchester City, whom he as good as accused of buying their way to the title.
United, Mourinho said, were a big club in name but not currently “a big football team”. Then, in a blunt message to Ed Woodward, the executive vice-chairman, and the Glazer family, the club’s owners, ahead of the January transfer window, the United manager insisted
The amount that Pep Guardiola has spent on new players at Manchester City since Jose Mourinho was appointed. the near-£300million outlay over the past 18 months was not enough to get the club back to where they want to be.
If only his team had gone on the attack in the same way. United were ultimately indebted to the brilliance of substitute Jesse Lingard for scoring twice in the second half to inspire a fightback after Burnley had taken a 2-0 lead into the interval courtesy of Ashley Barnes’s early opener and a superlative free-kick from Steven Defour. United have now dropped seven points from the last 15 available.
This result came just three days after a 2-2 draw at Leicester City, when Mourinho accused his players of “childish” errors and a “lack of maturity”, and City will open up an eye-watering 15-point lead at the top of the table should they beat Newcastle United tonight. Suffice to say, Mourinho is not happy. “When you say a big club like Manchester United, do you think Milan is not as big as us?” Mourinho said, referring to other big, historic clubs experiencing their own difficulties.
“You think they are not as big as we are? Do you think Real Madrid are not as big as we are? You think Inter Milan is not as big as we are? One thing is a big club and another thing is a big football team that you know is not one of the best teams in the world.
“Manchester City buy full-backs for the price of the strikers, so when you speak about big football clubs, you are speaking about the history of the club.”
United’s £286 million outlay since Mourinho took charge in May last year is around £80million less than Pep Guardiola has spent over the same period at City. But Mourinho suggested his club would have to start digging deeper. “Is not enough, is not enough,” he said.
It was an eventful game: some lovely goals, hapless defending and a flurry of cards – 10 all told on a busy day for referee Martin Atkinson. Burnley have now drawn at United, Liverpool and Spurs this season and won at Chelsea. They achieved this result without four of their recognised five-man back line, a testament to their character and growth, even if Sean Dyche admitted it was frustrating not to see his side hold on at the end.
That was largely down to the difference the introduction of Lingard and Henrikh Mkhitaryan at halftime made to United, as well as the energy and attacking endeavour of full-backs Ashley Young and Luke Shaw. The changes injected muchneeded pace, penetration and quality after a lamentable first half when Zlatan Ibrahimovic looked horribly short and United gifted Burnley the lead with Romelu Lukaku again showcasing his alternative approach to defending his own area.
The Belgium striker had helped City score both of their goals in United’s recent derby defeat and almost gifted Bournemouth another.
It was much the same here when he failed to clear his lines from Johann Berg Gudmundsson’s freekick to allow Barnes to fire home. There was nothing fortuitous about Burnley’s second goal, though, when Defour was fouled by Young and then sent a 25-yard free-kick flying into the top corner. Burnley required Ben Mee to clear off the line from Marcus Rashford but United needed some impetus.
Ibrahimovic and Marcos Rojo, both short of fitness after returning from knee injuries suffered in April, were jettisoned at half-time and the uplift was striking. Nemanja Matic dropped into defence as Mourinho threw caution to the wind.
Lingard should have scored almost immediately but Nick Pope thwarted him from close range from Young’s cross. The England forward was clinical, however, the next time Young drilled in a cross at his feet.
Using the pace of the ball, Lingard opened his body just enough to flick a nonchalant back-heel into the far bottom corner. It was an exquisite finish from a player in fine form. It would become a disjointed, stop-start game thereafter, with Atkinson constantly reaching into his pocket, but eventually United’s pressure told, even if they had fashioned very few clear-cut chances before Lingard claimed his second.
Dyche was unhappy Sam Vokes was penalised for a perceived foul on Phil Jones. Juan Mata sent in the free-kick, Young shot’s was blocked by the knees of Ben Mee and the ball bounced into the path of Lingard, who ruthlessly fired home into the bottom corner for his sixth goal in seven matches.