Manchester United manager Mourinho explains Lingard and Mkhitaryan substitutions
Jose Mourinho's Man Utd team selection was questioned by some supporters and he substituted Jesse Lingard and Henrikh Mkhitaryan at half-time.
- Jose Mourinho's Man Utd team selection was questioned by some supporters and he substituted Jesse Lingard and Henrikh Mkhitaryan at half-time.
Mkhitaryan had a shocker
Jose Mourinho did not want to 'destroy'
Jesse Lingard and
Henrikh Mkhitaryan's confidence by replacing them in the first-half of
Manchester United's defeat to City.
Mkhitaryan and Lingard made their first competitive starts of the season but endured a wretched 45 minutes in the 2-1 defeat to superior City, and were both substituted at the interval for Ander Herrera and Marcus Rashford.
Mourinho said United were let down by 'individual performances' but insisted the problem was not limited to just Mkhitaryan and Lingard.
"I'm clearly disappointed with the the first-half," Mourinho stressed. "Disappointed with some really poor individual performances that affected the level of the team.
"It was not just about them [Mkhitaryan and Lingard]. Other players were also not playing really well and obviously, as well as my decision, I don't like to go in the direction of singling out players. Let's say our team didn't play well in the first-half and their responsibilities are my responsibilities.
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"We didn't have a tactical problem, we had problems with poor performances, we lost the ball very, very easy. Even now our central defenders today they lost easy balls, bad passes, first station passes from Bailly to Fellaini and Blind to Pogba. We lost the ball in these kind of positions, so it was not Mikhi and Jesse it was much more than Mikhi and Jesse.
"I made a couple of decisions that I thought individual qualities of certain players would give me what I know that I I want and I didn't get it," he added.
Mkhitaryan was dire
"And at the same time because we were losing the ball so easily under the pressing we were making, we were never able to bring the defensive line up, so we stayed with the defensive line in our half.
"I didn't change after 20 minutes because I don't want to destroy the players, I didn't want to make three changes at half-time because I was afraid in a long 45 minutes something might happen, but if it was a sport in free number of changes and with changes during the first-half is normal, like basketball, I would do after 20 minutes.
"But I did at half-time, we changed the direction of the game but we didn't get the compensation I think we deserved in the second half."
Manchester United manager Mourinho explains Lingard and Mkhitaryan substitutions