José Mourinho is becoming ever more desperate to explain Manchester United’s slump. Saturday’s torpid stalemate with Southampton at Old Trafford was the third consecutive game his side took only a point, following the 2-2 draws against Leicester City and Burnley.
As Manchester City end the year with a 15-point advantage over United, Mourinho’s side are third and appear devoid of spark and creativity. Asked why, the Portuguese, who once bent title races to his will, cited ill fortune, bad refereeing decisions and injury.
“I feel unlucky, yes. But unlucky in football? You have to change, which is what we try to do. When I speak about three penalties in matches where a penalty and a possible goal makes a huge difference, I want to say unlucky because it is what I feel. I could be here with a biased theory, which I am not going [to do] at all.
“I am happy with the refereeing performances in these matches and [they were] just unlucky decisions. You have to be biased against us to say that the penalty against [Manchester] City and Leicester and Southampton were not penalties.”
Saturday’s non-penalty involved the ball hitting Maya Yoshida’s arm as Jesse Lingard looked to penetrate Southampton’s defence. The one at Leicester involved Marcus Rashford and against City it was Ander Herrera. An image of Mourinho clutching a handful of straws comes to mind.
So, too, when Mourinho points to absent players. Romelu Lukaku was carried off on a stretcher after a ninth-minute clash of heads with Wesley Hoedt on Saturday. Mourinho believes his top scorer may miss the New Year Day’s trip to Everton and Friday’s visit of Derby County in the FA Cup. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is out for four weeks after a setback in his recovery from a serious knee injury. Mourinho has also lost his full-back Ashley Young for three games after the 32-year-old accepted a charge of violent conduct from the Football Association after appearing to strike Dusan Tadic with his elbow on Saturday. The incident was not spotted by the referee, Craig Pawson, and Young did not contest the charge.
“The boys are trying,” the manager said. “We have lots of problems. We lost Lukaku, we lost Ibrahimovic for a month. To lose him for a month means he stops his run to the recovery. He has been running for many months. In the period where what he needs is to play and have minutes, we lose him for a month.
“We lose Lukaku, I don’t know for how long. I don’t remember the last time [Marouane] Fellaini played. It was long time ago. I don’t remember. A match at home against Brighton [25 November]. It was a long time ago. Michael Carrick was in pre-season. I don’t remember him playing during the season [he played in a Carabao Cup game in September], so we have problems.”
Everton may have lost for the first time under Sam Allardyce on Saturday – 2-1 at Bournemouth – yet a visit to Goodison Park is hardly where Mourinho would choose to arrest United’s slump. Still, he is reaching for positives. “Three draws are different than three defeats,” Mourinho said. “The difference is just three points but the difference in terms of the mental state of the defeat and the draw makes a difference. We need to improve the results, not the performance.
“I think when we played our last two matches at home – if I forget the first Burnley goal – the team was solid and played well. It tried to play all the time and took lots of risks; create, tried, never went to direct football.
“Also because at the moment we don’t have players to allow us to do that I am happy with that quality and that spirit – basically that. We have difficulty now to rotate players.”
For Mourinho to declare good fortune over the late Carabao Cup quarter-final defeat at Bristol City indicates the straits he and his side occupy. “The fact that we don’t play a semi-final is a good thing for us. We have no players to play these two possible extra matches in January,” the 54-year-old said. “Now we have to cope with Everton and Derby. After that we have an open space of nine to 10 days before Stoke.
“Hopefully in this period we can rest, we can work, we can recover some players to attack the second part of the season. We finish the year in third position in the table. We have to fight to improve our position.”
As Paul Pogba, who was anonymous again against Southampton, said: “We have to wake up, bounce back and get back to winning.”