Hughton: Mourinho fine coping with the pressure
Chris Hughton has claimed Jose Mourinho has “a wonderful way” of dealing with pressure in a show of support for his Manchester United counterpart after a testing week at Old Trafford.
Hughton saw his Brighton and Hove Albion side knocked out of the FA Cup by goals from Romelu Lukaku and Nemanja Matic on Saturday as United secured a place in next month’s Wembley semi finals.
United’s victory came four days on from their surprise Champions League exit at the hands of Sevilla and just over 24 hours after Mourinho’s impassioned defence of his record in a 12-minute monologue on his squad’s lack of “football heritage”.
The United manager had more strong words for his players after beating Brighton, accusing some of lacking ‘personality’, ‘class’ and ‘desire’ while also singling out Scott McTominay and Luke Shaw for criticism.
Mourinho’s reaction to the Sevilla defeat has led some to question his curious style of man management, but when asked for his reaction, Hughton pointed only to the United manager’s “outstanding” track record.
“I don’t think you’ll ever get anybody saying anything detrimental about Jose. He’s an outstanding manager,” the Brighton manager said. “Whenever I’ve been in his company he has always been very good company.”
“He’s praised us, he spoke really well about us when we played here [in November]. He’s a manger that’s managing a massive club and there are always different things that come with that than managing Brighton.”
Hughton added: “At the moment they’re a team that’s second in the division and the only reason they are second is because Man City have had an outstanding season. I think it’s always difficult. This is a club that will continue to win things. I don’t see that changing.”
Hughton is not surprised that Mourinho finds himself under such scrutiny, though he believes the United manager is more than capable of handling it.
“It’s Manchester United,” he said. “Jose has managed at big, big clubs. At all of those big clubs pressure comes with the territory. He has a wonderful way of dealing with that pressure. When you manage these type of clubs you’ve got to be used to it.”
Despite going down to a 2-0 defeat at Old Trafford, Brighton matched their hosts for the majority and caused United problems on several occasions. Hughton, in stark contrast to Mourinho, was pleased by what he saw from his players, particularly those at the back.
“I thought our defenders did great,” he said. “What I was pleased about was that we were a goal threat, but you have to defend well.
“We’ve got a back-four and in particular two centre-halves who put in a lot of blocks. When things are coming through the middle, they’re properly organised. That’s a huge part of the game particularly when you come here.”
Hughton added: “When I looked at the opportunities United had, the last one was from a set-play and of course the first goal was from a real quality ball in, we limited them to minimal clear chances.”