The performance
against Brighton was hardly any better than the one against Sevilla - although
the result was an improvement.
United
only had two shots on target - scoring with both - while Brighton had 14
efforts on goal, and Mourinho made clear his displeasure afterwards. He
said: "A few other guys, I saw them scared to play. I cannot say much
more. It is a relation with personality, is a relation to trust, is a relation
to class.
"When
the sun is shining and everything goes well, you win matches, you score goals,
everything goes in your direction, every player is a good player and wants to
play and wants the ball and looks amazing and is confident. "When
it is dark and cold, and in football that means a period of bad results or a
bad result, not everybody has the confidence and personality to play really.
"To
be on the pitch and touch the ball every five minutes, everyone can do it, but
to be on the pitch and say 'give me the ball because I want to play', not
everyone can do that. "Serbia midfielder
Matic was the only United player to emerge with unqualified credit in
Mourinho's eyes, having set up Lukaku's goal before scoring himself.
Fellow
midfielder Scott McTominay was commended for showing character, although
Mourinho declared that his performance was the worst he had produced since his
promotion from the youth set-up. The
manager said: "I prefer to name the good ones. Matic was an island of
personality and quality and reaction to the defeat of last Tuesday.
"Scott
played the worst match since he played with me in the first team but he is a
Manchester United player for sure. He is the player that made mistakes, passed
the ball so badly tonight, lost so many passes but had the big personality to
cope with the mistake.
"He
had the big personality to say: 'I am not playing well but at least I am going
to do the basic things of the game, keep position, recover balls and don't make
defensive mistakes.' But a few of the other guys, I saw them scared to
play." Mourinho reserved his
biggest criticism for left-back Luke Shaw, substituted at half-time despite
playing a role in Lukaku's goal.
The
manager has criticised the England international repeatedly in the past, most
notably last April, when he publicly questioned his approach in training, his
commitment, his focus and his ambition. Mourinho
suggested that, against Brighton, Shaw and fellow full-back Antonio Valencia
failed to follow his tactical instructions - and that was the reason for the
half-time change.
"It
is my decision," he said. "We worked on certain kinds of movements,
where it was really important the two full-backs were aggressive, created space
for Matic and were in front of the two central defenders. I didn't have that. "I
could have changed both of them at half-time. I didn't change both because it
was too aggressive to do it. I would only have one more change available to
make in 90 minutes.
"I
had to change one and I chose Luke because at least Antonio defensively was
capable of good positioning. Luke, in the first half, every time they came in
his corridor, the cross came in and a dangerous situation was coming. I was not
happy with his performance."
Source: BBC