IT’S TIME TO GIVE

Mourinho says United run has shown they’re easily best of the rest

JOSE MOURINHO thinks his Manchester United players should receive more credit after putting together a run that is beginning to bear the hallmarks of his other championship teams.

United face bottom-of-the-table West Brom today chasing a sixth consecutive Premier League victory with previous scalps including Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City.

However, those results have been overshadowed by their Champions League exit against Sevilla and the feeling that United start big matches too negatively, as they did in a remarkable 3-2 comeback win at the Etihad last weekend.

‘It is really hard for people to praise the team and to praise the boys. I think it’s very clear,’ said an unhappy Mourinho.

‘I understand if people have a go at us when we don’t play well. I never complained for example after the second match against Sevilla. When we do good things, there is always a “but”.

‘After the Sevilla match, only a good group with good people could do what they did, which is win every match after that.

‘The easy thing would have been to collapse in the Premier League in the sense that motivation and quality goes down. It hasn’t happened and I think that is the proof of what this group is.’

Mourinho’s supportive stance is a reversal of his stinging criticism of the squad earlier in the season. He accused them of making ‘childish decisions’ after dropping points at Leicester in December and said players lacked ‘personality and class’ after an FA Cup win over Brighton last month.

Individuals like Luke Shaw have also been singled out but United’s current run indicates that Mourinho’s toughening up process is working – and he knows from his personal history the importance of momentum. In 2012, Real Madrid beat Barcelona’s all-time greats to La Liga having won 11 of their last 13 games in the previous season.

Chelsea were indifferent in the first season of his second spell but defeated Spurs, Arsenal and Liverpool in the run-in and were champions 12 months later in 2015.

Now, he is calling for more respect towards his current charges at Old Trafford as they try to overhaul Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. They are a distance behind in second despite beating every other team in the league.

‘Respect is honesty. No buts for a team that has beaten every one of the top six opponents, a team that in the last three matches, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City, won all of them. A team that has already more points than last season, a team that has had brilliant matches and shown character in very important minutes in many matches.

‘If we finish second, it is impossible to deny what is reality, (to say) that sixth was better than us or fifth was better than us.’

Still, Mourinho feels winning the Premier League next season will be even tougher than getting past Guardiola’s Barcelona in Spain.

‘It is not just about us and City, it is about us and them, and Liverpool and Arsenal and Chelsea. I think it is about the six teams. Everybody will try to improve like we did from last season,’ said Mourinho.

‘Maybe also Manchester City will invest heavily and they don’t let the others close the gap to them, I don’t know. We are not going to spend more than we can.’