Jose Mourinho is not having Luke Shaw’s assessment of Manchester United’s struggles against Juventus.
United fell to a 1-0 defeat to the Serie A side on Tuesday night and the hosts looked unable to cope with Juventus in almost every department for large stages of the game.
While there were some signs of promise for United in the second half, the closest they could come to finding the net was an attempt from Paul Pogba which ricocheted off the post, hit the back of Wojciech Szczęsny’s head and dribbled away to safety.
Luke Shaw, who recently signed a new contract with the Red Devils, was brutally honest about the players’ mindset going into the Group H game at Old Trafford
“We gave them too much respect,” Shaw told BT Sport. “We tried in the second and we pushed and for some reason in the second half we have been better at times.
“Today we didn’t create too many clear cut chances and we gave them too much respect in the first and that’s why they got the result.
“I think first half they had way too much time on the ball we should have been more aggressive and pressed higher and that cost us with the goal but at least Valencia didn’t win so we have to make it right when we go to Juventus.”
Manager Jose Mourinho had selected an unchanged side from the weekend’s draw away at Chelsea and didn’t use any of his three substitutions with United chasing the game against Juve.
And Mourinho has rejected Shaw’s claim about the game.
When asked if United had given the visitors too much respect, Mourinho said: “I don’t think so. They can tell by themselves. I tried not to, that’s why we played with the team we played with the intention of being positive and to feel positive that we brought from Stamford Bridge.
“But I have to say Juventus are a different rival and if people don’t want to accept that’s their problem, they are a different level of quality.”
