Mourinho slams his ‘inconsistent’ underachievers
Jose Mourinho applauded Manchester City’s Premier League title success, but lambasted his Manchester United squad for losing 1-0 to West Bromwich Albion on Sunday.
Jay Rodriguez’s header in the 73rd minute gave West Brom a stunning victory after it arrived at Old Trafford having lost nine of its previous 10 matches.
“I don’t know if I was the first or second or third, but I congratulated City face to face when I had the chance,” Mourinho said.
“I knew that sooner or later they would be (champions) and if I was in their position I would be very upset if someone said they won the title because Manchester United lost against West Brom.
“They won because they were the best team, they lost only a few points. Probably because I won eight championships, I was not in the moon with the victory against them.
“That doesn’t make me feel super happy and in my opinion affected for sure some of the people that were too happy.”
United’s afternoon was symptomatic of its season. Its expensively assembled squad is crammed full of gifted bigname players such as Paul Pogba, Romelu Lukaku, Alexis Sanchez and Juan Mata, yet the Premier League standings, which show the Red Devils 16 points behind City, don’t lie.
United has scored 30 goals fewer than Pep Guardiola’s side this season, and Mourinho has only intermittently managed to get his side to click.
Mourinho pulled no punches about his squad’s lack of consistency, but the Portuguese, who won the last of his three top-flight titles with Chelsea in the 2014-15 season, made it clear he believes he can return United to the EPL summit.
“I trust in my work, that is for sure — I have no reason not to trust,” he said.
“Eight titles are eight titles and three Premier Leagues are three Premier Leagues. I know how to win and I believe in myself. I think with my experience you don’t win titles with inconsistency.
“You win titles with consistency at every level, not just the performance level, but the mental level and the day by day.
“Everything must be consistent until the last day. One of the things we definitely have to improve is our consistency.”