SOLUTIONS
Mourinho ponders right blend for wily Watford
LONDON
It took a fortuitous Lewis Dunk own goal for United to beat Brighton and Hove Albion 1-0 on Saturday and they had paid for their profligacy in a 1-0 Champions League defeat at Basel on their previous outing.
Mourinho said he had played with “too many attackers” against Brighton after aligning Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford and Juan Mata behind Romelu Lukaku and now seems likely to change tack.
“(Against Brighton) our creation was poor,” he said.
“The three players that played with Lukaku did not get the ball. We weren’t successful on the one-against-one.
“Marcus did not have a happy match at all. So we did not have that creation and could expect some defensive problems against a good team on the counter-attack.”
United lost 1-0 at Chelsea at the start of November and only once this month, in a 4-1 home win over Newcastle United, have they exhibited the kind of slick attacking football they showcased earlier in the campaign.
But with Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool all dropping points over the weekend, United are now out on their own in pursuit of runaway leaders Manchester City.
They continue to trail Pep Guardiola’s men by eight points, but as City are not in action until tomorrow, when they host Southampton, United can apply some pressure by closing to within five points of top spot.
With the Manchester derby at Old Trafford looming on Dec 10, Mourinho says he will be happy to pick up points however they are obtained.
“In the Champions League (against Basel), we played some of the best football away from home in the first half and could have been 6-0, but it was 0-0,” he