Zenit St Petersburg pulled off one of the most impressive fightbacks in European competition history when they came back from 3-0 down against Maccabi Tel Aviv to win 4-3 with all the Russian side’s goals coming from the 77th minute onwards.
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United were well below their best against Feyenoord and another loss at Vicarage Road this weekend would leave Mourinho with some awkward questions to answer for the first time since he took charge.
“Beforehand I said to the boys, “If we go all out and they play five per cent less then we can win”.
He picked a lot of players who haven’t had much time out on the pitch and it was always going to be tough against a team who are flying in their domestic league.
“We have to play close to each other”. I know the situation is not click your fingers and everybody is ideal. “I am here not to let them be in a negative mood because we lost two matches in four days”.
Even so, he could do with an influential performance from France midfielder Paul Pogba against Watford after the world record signing s latest underwhelming performance in midweek. And the Frenchman has been at the sharp end of numerous fans’ scathing remarks from the past two games. “It’s something I don’t like”. Martial was arguably the best player on Manchester United last season, so Mourinho might be best off continuing to play Martial and waiting for him to find his old form.
“But I think today we were very good physically and they didn’t create a lot”.
A woeful run in the Premier League with Chelsea eventually saw Mourinho sacked on December 17, ironically half way through his third season at the club.
“It’s more hard, yes [to win the Premier League when you are playing in the Europa League]”.
Tonny Vilhena’s late strike had those inside De Kuip bouncing and gave Kuyt, who played the full game in central midfield, another memory to cherish against United.
JS: “There are many, many things I like a lot”. We felt like they were collapsing a bit physically, they were in trouble and it was that moment in which we lost the game. Teenage Spaniard Pol Lirola put Sassuolo ahead on the hour mark and they did not look back, Gregoire Defrel making it two on 75 minutes before Matteo Politano sealed the win.
He said: “When you lose matches, there are no miracles in terms of the players’ soul”. You lose matches and people are sad and they feel it.
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“Look I don’t want to personalise”.
