Mourinho on United tactics: Who is more ambitious than us?

Matt Stead

Jose Mourinho does not believe that many – if any – clubs are “more ambitious” in attack than Manchester United.

United have been criticised for their defensive style at times this season, particularly in the aftermath of the 0-0 draw with Liverpool last month.

But Mourinho’s side have scored more Premier League goals (27) this season than every side except for leaders Manchester City.

That record is only slightly less impressive in the Champions League. Their ten goals outranks all but seven sides in the competition.

Yet the Portuguese was still forced to field questions over his tactics on Friday.

“More ambition than we have at home I think is quite difficult, I don’t know who is more ambitious than us,” he said. “We played against Newcastle with (Paul) Pogba, (Marcus) Rashford, (Anthony) Martial, (Juan) Mata, (Romelu) Lukaku, the full-backs are not full-backs, (Antonio) Valencia and (Ashley) Young are wingers not full-backs. So I don’t know what you want.

“Fans are fans and professionals are professionals and fans are more emotional, they think and feel things in a different way than we do.

“I always say to myself we must have emotional balance when we are doing very well, when we are doing bad, always an emotional balance after a big victory or big defeat.

“In this moment, we haven’t reached 50% of the season so let’s be calm. We have four competitions to play and let’s go step by step, match after match.

“It’s an interesting week because I think is the first time we have three Premier League matches in one week.

“We cannot think about the gap, we can not think about the gap to City, to the fifth position, we just have to focus on ourselves and three Premier League matches in one week.

“Obviously for us Brighton, Watford, Arsenal is a very important week, but let’s focus on Brighton, ninth in the table, good team, difficult to beat, don’t concede many goals, has a mix of physicality, aggression, quality creativity. I think Chris Hughton is doing a great job since he took the team a few seasons ago and we must focus on this one.

“I know we have a good record at home and are strong at home, but the opponent is going to be difficult for us.”