Manchester United have been dubbed as the favourite club to clinch the Europa Cup title but their display and lackluster performance against Belgian side Anderlecht left so much to be desired yesterday night.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan put the Red Devils in the lead in the first half of the quarter final first leg but Anderlecht drew level just four minutes away from 90 when Leander Dendoncker superbly headed a ball past Romero into the net.
Jose Mourinho has tongue-lashed all his players but Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard, who he singled out for praise because of their performance, per report.
Going into the game, Man United were clear favourite even though they were playing away from home, but Mourinho’s submission after the game reveals he’s a tad disappointed with the display of majority of his players.
“It was a strong performance from the team, the defensive part,” Mourinho said.
“Lingard and Rashford, they did defensively what we asked them to do; they covered some space but when the team is broken on the counter-attack, we cannot lose so many balls.
“We didn’t miss so many chances; it was about half-chances and chances where the space is there and the time is there but these moments, sometimes we play two-touch not one-touch and lose the ball.
“Another time one-touch not two-touch. The decisions were wrong.”
From his statement, it means the other players did not play to his instruction barring the goalkeeper.
United have returned to England and they are now expected to step up preparation for their crunch tie with League leaders Chelsea this weekend.
The game for United is a make or mar game as any result other than a win might put their chances for top four qualification in doubt. The Special one is going to field his best XI and would have taken correction from the negatives of yesterday’s game.
