Jose Mourinho wouldn’t name names immediately after his side’s shock defeat on Saturday afternoon.
While shaky defending from Victor Lindelof was responsible for Huddersfield’s pair of first half goals, Mourinho would not be drawn into pointing the finger at any of his players specifically right after the game which finished 2-1 in favour of the hosts.
The Manchester United boss cut a philosophical figure in his first post-match interview, which was given to Sky Sports, but refused to single out anyone.
But as the defeat sank in and he continued fulfilling his media obligations, one player’s name soon found its way into Mourinho’s musings. It was that of Ander Herrera, the midfielder who, at stages, found himself in a back three at John Smith’s Stadium.
“I heard Ander Herrera is in the flash interviews and he is saying that the attitude and desire was poor,” Mourinho said.
A frank assessment of today's result from Ander Herrera… pic.twitter.com/S8ucttuZCw
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) October 21, 2017
“My God! When a player says that and when a player feels that, I think they should all go to the press conference and explain why, because I can’t explain.
“It concerns me. If it happens today, why can’t it happen tomorrow?”
After displaying diplomacy immediately after the game, Mourinho went on to admit that Lindelof and Juan Mata had been to blame for the shoddy defending which saw Huddersfield take the lead.
“In the first-half, I was just waiting for that mistake,” he said, via Manchester Evening News. “It was Mata and Victor, could be another one because the attitude was really poor.
“So they beat us on attitude and when I lose matches I like to lose matches because the opponent was better than us. When you lose a match because of attitude that’s really bad.”
Next up for the Red Devils is a trip to Swansea for a Carabao Cup round of 16 tie and Mourinho will be hopeful that whatever motivation was absent among his charges this weekend will have returned by Tuesday night.
But the Portuguese didn’t want to assume that the defeat would light a fire under the team. He was just thoroughly disappointed by the lack of fight.
“I don’t like to anticipate the reactions [to this defeat] because in this moment I don’t know what to say,” Mourinho continued. “We come here to play a Premier League match, to play for three points, you know, I feel really disappointed and if I was a Manchester United supporter, the traditional supporter, I would be really disappointed.
“Because I think you can play and lose football matches because the opponent had more quality than you but you cannot lose matches because the opponent had a better attitude than you. So really disappointed.”
