MANCHESTER UNITED PERFORMANCE AND ANALYSIS /2018/2019 ENGLAND PREMIERE LEAGUE start up

MANCHESTER UNITED PERFORMANCE AND ANALYSIS /2018/2019 ENGLAND PREMIERE LEAGUE start up

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho demanded “respect” from journalists before walking out of his post-match press conference following the club’s 3-0 loss to Tottenham Hotspur.

The defeat was Mourinho’s heaviest at home in his career and leaves United with just three points from their opening three matches of the season.

Here's what he said

My message was the same message as the supporters, the message that the supporters gave to the players was my message, was the same. When you play the way you play, when you create what you create, when we miss the chances that we missed, when at half-time everybody was frustrated but totally convinced that we were going to win the match.

“And even with the unexpected 2-0 result, the way the team kept playing until the third goal arrived, my message to the players has to be a positive message and I'm really happy, humbled by the way the supporters reacted to the boys, I think it was very much deserved, but sometimes players deserve and they don't get what they deserve, so we have to be humbled by the supporters reactions.

When things get really bad in his career and events spiral out of control, Jose Mourinho can never stop himself defending the one thing that matters more to him than anything in football - that being his own reputation and the achievements he has accrued over 18 years as a manager.

It is the keystone of his ego, of his sense of self and the place in the world that the PE teacher from Setubal fought his whole life to establish. Sometimes it feels like he would do anything to protect it and in the Old Trafford press room after this defeat to Tottenham Hotspur that was what he did: Mourinho with his back to the wall, besieged by doubt, embarrassed by a younger manager and only one way out.

It was why he held up three fingers and posed a rhetorical question about what that number represented – the answer, of course, being his three Premier League titles that equate to one more than all his current 19 managerial peers put together. He was barely keeping a lid on the rage by that stage, the old myth that Mourinho is a careful choreographer of the big moments well and truly skewered as he let emotions take over and marched out demanding “respect”.

Even at this stage it would be a huge task to overhaul the neighbours.

Given the current turmoil surrounding Old Trafford, it would leave Jose with a mountain to climb and could see the fans – who are far from unanimous in their support – finally turning en masse.

Never mind hiring plans with banners to get rid of Ed Woodward – they will be flying ‘em past Jose’s window in the the Lowry hotel suite he calls home before long at this rate

Both clubs have their problems at the moment – on and off the pitch – but what are we set to learn from the game?

The game and league is still fresh so I believe they still have all the changes and chances needed

UP MANCHESTER UNITED

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