Its a bit weird. The players showed lots of determination and heart just a few weeks ago when they managed a great comeback against palace. Most of the players did more than ok when we managed to beat both Chelsea and Liverpool.
A week later and the players are suddenly primadonnas that dont listen to the managers instructions?
Bingo. And why did they come back that day? Because at 2-0 down, they had to go for it. Their manager's instructions had put them two down in the first place.
There's a major health warning here, because I have no idea if Ashton's story is true or not. It is The Sun, after all. But in any case: on Friday, Mourinho's highlighting the Man City squad (including a player he himself sold, FFS), with the implication of "how can I compete? It's just not fair" and discussing United's recent history (implication: "Look what I inherited! I'm doing really well!").
Then on Sunday, he singles out individual players, one in particular. Sorry Jose - which is it? Do the players have bad attitudes or are you building something?
All this, incidentally, is completely standard stuff from him. He did it to Pedro Leon at Madrid, then a bunch of much bigger names (who he referred to as "black sheep"). He threw his own physio under the bus at Chelsea, then another bunch of big names, as well as calling them "mentally weak". Now, whether or not Ashton's story is correct, he's at it again - entirely with a view to defending and protecting himself.
It's very lowest common denominator stuff - because it always leaves many fans, not to mention his boards, thinking "that's just what I'd tell these overpaid layabouts. He's a manager after my own heart who really cares about this club. Shape up or ship out, and let's give him hundreds more millions to get people in who'll give everything".
But this is to ignore what he's actually culpable for. In his craven tactics, always obsessed by the opponent, and the ridiculous over-intensity he manages with, he ruins players. What he's done to Sanchez and Pogba is staggering. They play badly, appearing to prove him right, only because he's deploying them wrongly in the first place. There is nothing positive he can possibly achieve by slagging Shaw in public - other than the board signing new players. And in the end, he doesn't get anything like the maximum from his sides... because they end up confused by him, even hating him.
Footballers are paid fortunes - but in terms of wanting to be treated fairly and with respect, they're just the same as any of us. And the manager is far and away the most important position at any club for a reason. Players run through proverbial brick walls for managers who pick them in their best positions, play to their strengths, treat them with warmth and empathy, and don't play constant mind games with them: especially not in public.
No-one else at the elite end of the sport does this. Only Mourinho does - and the reason he does is himself. Not his team.