Former Ireland worldwide Stephen Hunt has penned a column in the Irish Indepedent explaining that Mourinho’s dogged insistence on sticking with the misfiring Rooney is actually a smart move from the Manchester United manager.
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Following the 2-1 defeat to Manchester City earlier this month, Mourinho – without naming names – effectively blamed him players for the loss.
After all, the Red Devils were undefeated and home favorites against also undefeated cross-town rivals Manchester City.
Asked if United’s drop in form was worrying, Mourinho said: “My feeling is that it is not because we started the season very well with (winning) the Community Shield and three victories in a row in the Premier League”.
But United never looked convincing and they crumbled at the back in the 83rd minute as Zuniga scored with his first touch less than a minute after coming on. This is Watford’s first victory over United in 30 years.
“There is no debate, no controversy”. It’s an obvious situation, like last week against Manchester City, but it’s something I can not control or be critical with.
“The referee’s crucial mistakes are not in my control, there is nothing I can do about that”. I can not improve the referees or officials and luck will arrive when she wants to.
He criticised how his team started, but Jose also wasn’t impressed with the officials today.?
Mourinho didn’t name names, but Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba failed to make much of an impact with the latter now a source of some concern to United fans. “Lady luck you don’t control and referees mistakes you don’t control”.
“The third thing is what is in my hands, improvement of the team and the individuals”. The second goal is an individual mistake. “We know we have to press and not allow them one in the box”.
He added: “Then there’s Mourinho’s comments about Luke Shaw, claiming publicly that he’s not learning from his mistakes”. I feel the first moment we had a defeat, a hard situation, some of the boys are having a bit of difficulty coping with the negativity. We had that period where, in the stadium, everyone was thinking about Manchester United going on to score a goal and win the game. It mans that my work, that we do every day, it shows on the pitch, and we will continue doing this’. “We should take a bit more credit, we pressed well, condensed the space and were tough in the tackle”, said Deeney.
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Roberto Pereyra was unchecked when he raced onto Nordin Amrabat’s pass into the United penalty area and he cut the ball back to Colombia defender Zuniga, who lashed a fine strike past de Gea to leave Mourinho ashen-faced. “But then we made the changes and everything went the right way”.
