Mourinho discusses McTominay’s ‘very bad’ performance

Daniel Storey

Jose Mourinho believes Scott McTominay’s “very bad” performance shows why he is a Manchester United player.

Mourinho was critical of all of his players, but saved his strongest censure for Luke Shaw. He also criticised McTominay’s passing, but praised the midfielder’s continued belief despite the poor play. It just about qualifies as a compliment.

“My calculation is without pressure they don’t perform well,” Mourinho said.

“And there’s an example of personality, you have the kid that didn’t play well at all and I told him already, was the one I first spoke individually with in the dressing room, and instead of being critical with him I was positive with him.

“Because you play very bad but did the basic things that a player has to do and one of the basic things is to keep emotional balance.

“To play with that red shirt – which is a heavy one, is a heavy shirt to wear – and the kid in his worst performance by far, he was there. He was not afraid to play, he played bad and every player can play bad.

“Scott played on Matic’s side, Scott played the worst match since he played with me in the first-team, but he is a Manchester United player for sure, because he’s the player that made mistakes, passed the ball so bad tonight, lost so many passes.”