Mourinho: Man United did ‘fantastic defensive job’

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho claims that his team “did a fantastic defensive job without defending” in their 1-0 FA Cup final defeat to Chelsea.

Phil Jones fouled Eden Hazard for the penalty that decided the contest but Mourinho declared himself happy with the way they dealt with the “long balls” of Chelsea.

Oddly, Mourinho does not agree with our 16 Conclusions that picking Jones was a mistake.

“My opinion on my team’s performance is that every defeat hurts, but for me personally the ones that hurt less are when you give everything and you go without any regrets,” said Mourinho.

“I prefer to lose like today than lose like we did at, for example, Newcastle. I leave my players happy with them. For me that’s really important.

“I think our team did a fantastic defensive job without defending. We controlled positions, transitions really well.

“They only played long balls to Giroud to flick. When you play against a team so predictable it’s quite easy to adapt to it. I thought we wouldn’t concede any goal in this match.

“But of course Hazard is a very good player and he created a penalty.”