Former England football manager Sven-Göran Eriksson has some sage advice to embattled Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho.
Mourinho stormed out of his post-match press conference on Monday night demanding respect following a 3-0 loss to Tottenham at Old Trafford.
The defeat marked United’s second successive loss following last weekend’s collapse at Brighton but Mourinho seemingly brushed off the criticism by reminding the gathered media that he had won three Premier League titles.
Erikkson said that Mourinho should concentrate on his side’s results more than his own credentials and added that he will never win a battle with the press as long as he’s a manager.
“Maybe. Maybe not,” Erikkson told Sky Sports News when asked if Mourinho deserved more respect.
“But I don’t think he should say it, I think that should be automatic. It’s always like that, when you are criticised as a coach – and I’ve been it many times in England, outside England and wherever – it’s better to keep quiet.
“Don’t try to defend yourself because the results defend yourself. It’s only by result you can defend it, and that’s in the paper, read it, don’t talk about it.
“Especially when you start to argue with the press, you will never win. You will always lose because if you are the journalist, you have the last word – you write it. So keep quiet, put your head down and go on working and show people in the next game we will pay good football and we will win.
If Jose Mourinho leaves, Man United have six managers on their shortlist to replace him https://t.co/HKXlgAomhS
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) August 29, 2018
“I think that’s the only way to answer, now I’m talking about me and how I was. Don’t start to talk about ‘show me respect’. Respect is everyone knows in football what I have done, I know what I have done, I know what I’m good at and what I’m not good at and every manager is the same.
“So when you’re criticised, swallow it.”
Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville said after the match that the club should allow Mourinho the time to improve his current standing and that they should commit to the manager long term.
“We saw Louis van Gaal sacked after an FA Cup final victory, we saw David Moyes sacked with four games to go of a season, so we are no longer talking about a football club that is behaving as it has historically done,” Neville told Sky Sports.
“I accept these are different times and I accept the difficulties and challenges, but my honest view as I stand here now is that Ed Woodward gave him a contract last season, only seven or eight months ago, and he should see that contract through to the end and do the job.
“You can’t keep jumping around with managers. I hear the third-year Mourinho stories and all the rest of it and you can’t disagree with those stories because there is some history. But what I would say is it’s time now for Manchester United to batten down the hatches and for Jose Mourinho and Ed Woodward to sort themselves out if there is a problem there.”
