Mourinho calls on players to act like men
AFP
AFP, MANCHESTER: Manchester Uniteds players must behave like men in the wake of their humiliating 4-0 Premier League hammering by Chelsea, manager Jose Mourinho said on Monday.
The Portuguese coach who sat helplessly as he endured his worst defeat in the Premier League against the club who sacked him last term wants an immediate reaction against city rivals Manchester City in Wednesdays League Cup clash.
We are really, really sad, but again this is not for kids, this is for men and...we have to be men and work for the next one, the 53-year-old told the clubs TV station MUTV.
Mourinho, whose side have won just once in their past six Premier League games, said he was sanguine about Uniteds recent results and took succour from the fact they would drop points when they play each other.
They trail the trio of table-toppers Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool by six points.
However, their haul of 14 points after nine matches is Uniteds second worst in their Premier League history the team in 2014/15 garnering just 13.
I would prefer to play (next) in the Premier League, said Mourinho.
Its a bad feeling in the Premier League. With the combination of results the gap to the top is six points.
We have had a very difficult period of matches.
We lost points this week and, even in the match when we played phenomenal against Stoke, we lost points then. Now we need to win matches.
I am not saying they are easy ones, but we have Burnley, we have Swansea, West Ham, Sunderland, Middlesbrough matches that we need to win and the top four, the top five, they have to play between themselves like we did this week against Chelsea and Liverpool.
They are going to lose points too, so we are in the run, but there is no way to hide because I think our faces speak by themselves.
Meanwhile, Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany believes bitter rivals Manchester United have handed his team an advantage by playing down Wednesdays League Cup local derby at Old Trafford.
Its just physically impossible for me to play down a derby, said Kompany, 30. But the more they say this is the fourth competition, the better it is for us.
Am I looking forward to Wednesday? Come on, always. The bigger the game, the better.
Thats how Ive always approached it in my career and I will for the rest of my career. Those games are what you play for.
Kompany, regarded as one of the top centre-backs in the Premier League, has suffered a mammoth 34 injuries in his eight years with the Blues.
The majority of his injury history relates to hamstring and, particularly, calf problems, although Kompanys latest issue has concerned his groin.
Its hard to come back, obviously, but I know what I have to do to be back at my level, said the City stalwart.
Im always confident. The last thing I want to do, when youve lived through your career as a footballer, is give up.
If I give up then I know the outcome. But if I carry on, theres always a chance that Ill relive those moments. So my motivation can never be in doubt.
God knows what would have happened if Id never had those injuries but I need to get something that makes me stronger out of it, something different from other players, and thats what I believe in.
City manager Pep Guardiola is looking to end an unusually barren spell by his high standards and following Citys latest disappointment against Southampton he kept his players locked in the dressing room for nearly an hour.
Kompany declined to discuss specifically what was said during the inquest but accepts that the players should shoulder their share of criticism.
Were adults, were all highly ambitious and we realise that we have to move as a unit and behave as a team and I think anything in the dressing room stays in the dressing room, he said.
But I think its positive to have some sort of maturity in the team, to recognise we need to move forward, but to have a positive spirit and, as I said, these kind of results sometimes give you something extra and thats what we need to get out of it.
