Jose Mourinho's press conference - Brighton (FA Cup) - 14:00 GMT

[Kag]

Haha, you mean the best striker in the league over the last 7-8 years, Silva who is rated by everyone and Sterling who was a rising star? Grant you that Otamendi has massively improved under Pep, but they definitely had a much better team for Pep to take over than Jose's United. Think that's reflected in the league table over the last few years.

He raised Sterling, Otamendi, De Bruyne, Fernandinho, Aguero and Silva. I said "most" of them have improved significantly. That accounts for the first four, who are playing the best football their career's. Sterling and Otamendi in particular were nowhere near the mark.

They didn't have a much better side either. I've argued this relentlessly before that they had just as many gaping holes as us, albeit with star power we didn't have. Their full backs were horrible, their central midfield non-existent and they didn't have a winger to their name. Hart's form had dropped off a cliff and Kompany had been carrying his partner(s) for about five years. When Van Gaal was sacked we were roughly on par, which was reflected in the league games that year, as well as the table.

The constant suggestion that Guardiola took over this brilliant City side was and still is utter cobblers.

 

[Paul the Wolf]

If our team isn't good enough to beat Sevilla, then he should be done for wasting £300m.
We are good enough to beat Sevilla ffs!
I wish people would stop believing this crap that our players are complete duds.

Wigan beat City ergo Wigan are better than City, don't you know, ergo City players are all duds as well.

 

[Fully Fledged]

Any controversial statements from our fearless leader today?

We were Shite under SAF, Shite under Moyse and Shite under LVG so stop moaning.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Come on, we all want to hear what went wrong against Sevilla.

Then he should have said after the game, he didn't and he didn't today either.

 

[edgar allan]

If the team was good enough we would have beaten them, quite simply.

So by that logic a manager has little effect on the performance of a team.??
An underdog can beat teams with better players if they are coached and set up in the right way and vice versa in our case.

 

[DavidDeSchmikes]

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[BigCaine]

I don't think it is. I think the people who want him out hate his style of play. And they are invigorated when we have poor results. He had close to 60% support on the Caf up until the Sevilla game, now that's dropped to around 45% with a quarter wanting him out. I don't enjoy the defensive setup myself, but I also think that the defense needs sorting as well as the balance in midfield on on the right. I think he can do this and I don't see much point in getting him out when he's a few players from getting the team he wants.

If it were simply about results, then people would take that defeat on the chin but acknowledge that we are 2nd in the league with quite a healthy points tally, with a chance of winning the FA Cup.

I am saying the same thing, may be didn't say it clearly. People who want him out hate his style, frankly you will be hard pressed to find many who like his style.

But when results go our way it the necessary evil that gets the job done but if it can't then it isn't worth suffering through, same happened with lvg, very few moaned about lvg's football in the first season as top 4 was more important second season most wanted him gone. Mourinho is going through the same.

Also the defense or any part of the team improving won't change his football, his Madrid team was world class yet until we had nani sent off we were playing them off the park at OT, that's just how he plays.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

This was in response to a question about the fans not being happy and he went off on one. Basically how we have to aspire to be Man City.

Sadly at the moment that is who we do have to aspire to, as we are not getting near any of our great sides of the past.

 

[roonster09]

That was intense press conference.

 

[Random Task]

Not quite reached this level yet, but getting there:

Did he storm out of the press conference with egg on his face?

 

[SqueakyWeasel]

Why would he make any Manchester United post- or pre- match press conference all about Jose Mourinho?

The questions are clearly about the club or the team but he twists them to defend a huge ego!

Well his ego is not as big as this club … and that’s all I’m worried about.

If we lose to Seville he should expect a tough time - especially given his choice of some starting players. To turn it into an investigation of his record rather than the Manchester United going out to an opponent that they should be beating is kinda missing the fecking point!

And anyone who says he’s simply deflecting criticism of the team onto himself is deluded … all imo obviously!

 

[Web of Bissaka]

Watch it before it's taken down again

Maybe I missed it, but no one asked him about his approach against Sevilla? Specific questions? That's what we wants to hear anyway.

Then he mumbles on and on about football heritage, which is fine, CL is a hard competition and team inheritance does have a play in squad levels.

Results is not too surprising, CL is tough, it's the approach we have problems.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Did he storm out of the press conference with egg on his face?

Nobody to throw the egg.

 

[El Zoido]

It sounds like he’s cracking up. I’d want rid of him but there’s nobody better available.

Is this job impossible at this point? I can’t imagine many coaches seeing us as a dream job.

 

[Minimalist]

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Definitely no chip on his shoulder...

 

[Fully Fledged]

Because you can't just turn it around because you want to. We were 6th in the league last season; should we suddenly have expected to win the league this season?

We should have got last 8. That is a simple fact. If we went out by bad luck while we dominated Sevilla then that would have been one thing but to go out with 2 weak ass performances like that was disgraceful.

 

[Son Of Sam]

So many fickle people here. Majority were seething after the Sevilla game but now have gone back to the " Oh, but we must give him more time cause he inherited a shit team"

Let's conveniently forget he's spent close to 300 million since his arrival and I see little to no improvement in our attacking play.

He can shift the blame onto the club but it doesn't change the fact that we were dumped out of the CL by one of La Liga's whipping boys and were completely dominated in both legs.

2 years is a good enough time to judge improvement and I see no reason to believe that Mourinho will suddenly start playing attacking football if we let him spend just 200 million quid more.

He’s spent £300m but 4 players out of the back five against Sevilla were Fergie’s acquisition. In that period, his nemesis across the city has spent £250m on his defence alone with the luxury of even changing his goalkeeper twice.

Our squad building is too slow. Jose has added 8 players to a team that was 3/10(caused by the LVG/Moyes years). Pep has added 18 players to a team that was 7/10(Pellegrini won a league title & got to the semis of UCL). That United are even 2nd on the table is a testament to Jose’s managerial acumen.

Yes, we should be beating Sevilla but that is on paper. You still have to do business on the pitch and our players lacked the needed desire on the night. We lost, our fans should move on. Athletic Bilbao once got our asses handed to us under Fergie. I didn’t see this amount of criticism back then. Ultimately, Woodward has so much work to do.

 

[JohnnyKills]

So many questions the press could have asked:

1. How does all this 'heritage' talk justify losing to Sevilla?
2. You say this is not a quick-fix, but why was it a quick fix in Porto and Inter. Are you a worse manager now?
3. You mention KDB as a key factor in City's success. Why did you sign him?

 

[Crimson King]

Sounds like it was pretty bad...on the BBC website they normally cover the pressers as part of their rolling coverage, but this one has it's own 'BREAKING NEWS' page.

I just wanted to move on from Sevilla, not have more of this crap. I've gotten used to everyone else pointing out how shit we are now compared to yesteryear, we don't need our own manager doing it too.

 

[Kag]

Today was an opportunity to own up to the midweek performance and reassure supporters that we are a talented side that are capable of playing exciting, attacking football. That's what he should be doing.

Instead we get this narcissistic diatribe from a bloke more interested in his own legend than anything else. A bit of paper with our previous Champions League results? I mean, what a fecking walloper this bloke is.

 

[Bastian]

He raised Sterling, Otamendi, De Bruyne, Fernandinho, Aguero and Silva. I said "most" of them have improved significantly. That accounts for the first four, who are playing the best football their career's. Sterling and Otamendi in particular were nowhere near the mark.

They didn't have a much better side either. I've argued this relentlessly before that they had just as many gaping holes as us, albeit with star power we didn't have. Their full backs were horrible, their central midfield non-existent and they didn't have a winger to their name. Hart's form had dropped off a cliff and Kompany had been carrying his partner(s) for about five years. When Van Gaal was sacked we were roughly on par, which was reflected in the league games that year, as well as the table.

The constant suggestion that Guardiola took over this brilliant City side was and still is utter cobblers.

Yeah, I disagree. Firstly, they have enough money to buy those they want, which affects the dynamic, you know you won't have endless chances, which is not the case for us, having quite a few average players carving out long careers here (and this reached it's pinnacle with Rooney still being here when he wasn't fit for any purpose and the whole squad always referring to him as some sort of an epic leader of men). They've spent more and like you said, they had more star quality already. They also didn't suffer successive managerial disasters stockpiling players that aren't good enough on high wages and tricky to move on, whilst also decimating the winning mentality SAF had built through decades of relentless work. So I completely disagree. I will concede however, as it's obvious, that Guardiola is the better manager (at least when managing a very expensive top quality side).

 

[Fully Fledged]

Sadly at the moment that is who we do have to aspire to, as we are not getting near any of our great sides of the past.

Where you happy with that when Moyse said it? Or is it because Jose can do no wrong?

 

[Random Task]

We were Shite under SAF, Shite under Moyse and Shite under LVG so stop moaning.

To be fair he has a point, we were shite under Moyes and LVG, not so much SAF though.

He can have a third of a point then.

 

[TrueRed79]

He will never admit its his tactics that are the problem. Yes he inherited a bit of a mess but there is no justifiable reason for the shite tactics he served up over the two legs against Seville.

 

[Bobski]

I am saying the same thing, may be didn't say it clearly. People who want him out hate his style, frankly you will be hard pressed to find many who like his style.

But when results go our way it the necessary evil that gets the job done but if it can't then it isn't worth suffering through, same happened with lvg, very few moaned about lvg's football in the first season as top 4 was more important second season most wanted him gone. Mourinho is going through the same.

Also the defense or any part of the team improving won't change his football, his Madrid team was world class yet until we had nani sent off we were playing them off the park at OT, that's just how he plays.

With a team of De Gea, Rafael, nearly finished Rio, nearly finished Vidic, Evra, Nani, Cleverley, Carrick, 39 yo Giggs, Welbeck and Van Persie, but we should not be expected to attack Sevilla, or any decent team, with the individuals we have.

 

[RedDevil@84]

Is this a good moment to say that he is attracting all media talk to be on him, thus shielding the players so that they can concentrate on the cup game

 

[King Kana]

Truth hurts and jose is telling truth but someone tell jose he is not paid to lecture about how crap we have been since sir alex retired but to improve us. He is doing the same thing that lvg did, feed his own ego at the expense of the club.

Mate, Utd were never win this CL with THIS squad. I think the sooner you all accept it the better you will feel. Ok you should’ve beat Sevilla but would you beat Bayern? Or Real?

You don’t deserve to go out but do you deserve to go through? Fans need to be honest with themselves me thinks. Seems like that’s what your manager is communicating.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

We should have got last 8. That is a simple fact. If we went out by bad luck while we dominated Sevilla then that would have been one thing but to go out with 2 weak ass performances like that was disgraceful.

Nobody really expected us to win the league this season, but up to the Liverpool game there were signs of a team who were scoring goals and were wanting to win, then the Liverpool game seemed to derail them and his attitude as to how results should come about. Not that I think the Liverpool game was a bad result.

 

[Fully Fledged]

To be fair he has a point, we were shite under Moyes and LVG, not so much SAF though.

He can have a third of a point then.

Yet we still went further in the champion's League under Moyes.

 

[Ramshock]

So many fickle people here. Majority were seething after the Sevilla game but now have gone back to the " Oh, but we must give him more time cause he inherited a shit team"

Let's conveniently forget he's spent close to 300 million since his arrival and I see little to no improvement in our attacking play.

He can shift the blame onto the club but it doesn't change the fact that we were dumped out of the CL by one of La Liga's whipping boys and were completely dominated in both legs.

2 years is a good enough time to judge improvement and I see no reason to believe that Mourinho will suddenly start playing attacking football if we let him spend just 200 million quid more.

This post is as bad as the posts you are moxking

 

[Web of Bissaka]

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Extension of this...

“You don’t have many days to be sad, so I'm happy that the players have come back exactly as myself. We train very well, always. We train always very well, so we don't need reaction to train better than we do because the training, the professionality, the enthusiasm, the organisation, every training session with us since day one, since I arrived, the players have been absolutely brilliant.”

http://www.manutd.com/en/News-And-F...r-United-v-Brighton-FA-Cup-quarter-final.aspx

Sounds like he plays the "Protect the players" card.

 

[Kemizee]

Bravo Jose for telling it like it is. Something a big part of our fanbase can't seem to understand.

He didn't inherite anything close to those players, our best players are those he bought and brought here. The expectations are not close to reality.

Fergie's last years in the market were a disaster, didn't replace Ronaldo, Moyes was a disaster in the market so was Van Gaal, basically it set us back a decade.

I don't in any way dispute what you said but let's be honest with ourselves. Did we lose to Sevilla because the players he inherited are shit?

Don't we have a better set of players than Sevilla? What in the world would he lose if he simply admitted he got it wrong on the night?
His stubbornness in the face of facts against him annoys me greatly and I would not mind seeing his back.

 

[Adisa]

Im the two season before Pep arrived, City accumulated a mighty 5 more points than we did.
Not saying we are as good but people exaggerate how far ahead they were.
The season before Pep and Jose came, we were separated by GD.

 

[100]

Otamendi was laughed at by most on here before Guardiola. Martial was arguably above Sterling. KDB is a player that Mourinho didnt use at Chelsea. Fernandinho wouldn’t have been seen as a significant upgrade on Herrera. Silva and Aguero you have to accept - as that was when Fergie or the glazers decided to start sleeping in the market. It left us behind a few years.

I wouldn’t have been that upset by the defeat if we attacked a bit more. We spent 150 minutes of a CL tie trying to nick a goal. We were able to blow Bayern away with Darron Gibson in fecking midfield at OT. You use the atmosphere and occasion of a European game to get at a team and cause them problems. Fecking Celtic do it every year.

 

[Fluctuation0161]

DDG, Smalling, Valencia, Mata, Young, Carrick - and Martial's been here as long as Sterling's been there. We've got "heritage" too.

Valencia and Young are ageing wingers who we play as full backs. Smalling is a joke and Carrick is 36/37 years old mate.

 

[Bastian]

I am saying the same thing, may be didn't say it clearly. People who want him out hate his style, frankly you will be hard pressed to find many who like his style.

But when results go our way it the necessary evil that gets the job done but if it can't then it isn't worth suffering through, same happened with lvg, very few moaned about lvg's football in the first season as top 4 was more important second season most wanted him gone. Mourinho is going through the same.

Also the defense or any part of the team improving won't change his football, his Madrid team was world class yet until we had nani sent off we were playing them off the park at OT, that's just how he plays.

I misunderstood you then. I do think that if he gets the defense he wants and a midfielder for the balance of the side, we'll be looking good. I don't remember many complaining at the start of the season when we looked better than we have for years.

The question I would have asked him is why he went with a midfield 2 that consisted of players who aren't quick that left huge amounts of space for Sevilla to exploit. A tactical error. Was it that he expected Sevilla to be much worse?

 

[Drawfull]

Watch it before it's taken down again

That heritage spiel was something else. And the fact that he has said that he doesn't intend to change will of course make everyone happy.

 

[Pyro19]

He’s spent £300m but 4 players out of the back five against Sevilla were Fergie’s acquisition. In that period, his nemesis across the city has spent £250m on his defence alone with the luxury of even changing his goalkeeper twice.

Our squad building is too slow. Jose has added 8 players to a team that was 3/10(caused by the LVG/Moyes years). Pep has added 18 players to a team that was 7/10(Pellegrini won a league title & got to the semis of UCL). That United are even 2nd on the table is a testament to Jose’s managerial acumen.

Yes, we should be beating Sevilla but that is on paper. You still have to do business on the pitch and our players lacked the needed desire on the night. We lost, our fans should move on. Athletic Bilbao once got our asses handed to us under Fergie. I didn’t see this amount of criticism back then. Ultimately, Woodward has so much work to do.

If the players lack the desire, then isn't it the Manager's job to pump them up?

Also Fergie took us to 3 CL finals in 4 years and won us 13 titles. I cannot believe people would actually drag Fergie's name in here to defend Mourinho's shit on a stick football

 

[Vilev]

Awful interview, it's nothing new of course, but jesus does he come off like complete and utter tool.

 

[King Kana]

He talks about our squad being poor and then gives Rojo an extension

As opposed to letting him run down his contract and the club not profiting from a sale? Right.