“In the second half they answered to my words at half time”. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong) Manchester United’s Spanish midfielder Ander Herrera (R) vies with Feyenoord’s Tonny Trindade during the UEFA Europa League match between Feyenoord Rotterdam and Manchester United at the Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam on September 15, 2016.
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United struggled for inspiration and coherence at De Kuip, where unfancied Feyenoord grabbed three points from the Group A clash.
Rashford started ahead of Zlatan Ibrahimovic in United’s 1-0 defeat to Feyenoord in the Europa League on Thursday night.
The “Special One” also said that despite the below standard efforts of his players more should have come from the game, pointing to another refereeing error when Nicolai Jorgensen was not called for offside before Feyenoord’s goal.
Mourinho complained that Jorgenson was offside when he delivered the cross for Feyenoord’s goal.
“Obviously when you lose matches then the mood and feeling is not the same”.
“I am very pragmatic in my approach to matches and competitions”. I know that the situation is not click your fingers and everybody is flawless.
“In that moment we were pushing and they capitalised because it is exactly at that moment where we lose the game”, he said.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s team had swept to the top of the Dutch league with five successive victories and they made their lethargic opponents pay when they got the only goal with 11 minutes left. “I’m not saying bad, but I’m not saying with the ambition you need to win football matches”. United looked short of ideas, their movement stilted, too many players off the pace or lacking conviction. “I can not judge them only on one game”.
“We know that when Manchester United goes in the Europa League, we are the team that everyone wants to play against, that everybody wants to fight (against) until their limits, which they did”, Mourinho told British television.
“Of course I’m not happy with the start”.
“United upped the tempo and used their physical presence in moments of the game, making it very hard for us”.
Keeper Jones had a much quieter evening than he might have expected and the Dutch side could have taken the lead in the first half when Jens Toornstra blazed high when he had time and space to shoot. “We were not trying to win just content with controlling the game”, said Mourinho. “It would be better if we had the privilege of playing on a Monday after a Thursday game to have one day [recovery] but we didn’t get that privilege”.
They defended with objective to nullify United’s limited threat and were rewarded with Vilhena’s goal, even though Jorgensen was clearly offside when he supplied the cross.
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“I think in that first half they won pretty much every second ball and they had aggression and determination far better than ours”.
