Jose Mourinho accuses Manchester United players of 'childish' decisions in Leicester draw

Nick Mashiter24 December 2017

Jose Mourinho accused his players of making "childish" decisions after Manchester United suffered last-gasp heartbreak at Leicester to further damage their slim title hopes.

United are now 13 points behind Manchester City at the top of the Premier League after Harry Maguire scored with virtually the last kick of the game for the 10-man Foxes to rescue a 2-2 draw.

Juan Mata's double looked to have given the visitors a valuable win after Jamie Vardy's opener, his 50th Premier League goal, before Maguire struck despite Daniel Amartey's second-half dismissal.

The visitors missed several chances with Anthony Martial blazing over and Jesse Lingard hitting the post after rounding Kasper Schmeichel.

Mourinho was also fuming after his touchline instructions to Ashley Young were not heeded when he wanted to stop an injured Chris Smalling from marking Maguire, just before the defender scored.

Mourinho said: "I had the chance to speak with Ashley Young to tell him the way the team had to be in position because of Smalling's difficulty but there was a lack of maturity.

"I cannot stop the game and give a team talk. For the last two minutes the players had to immediately adapt, to read the game, which they didn't so we had childish decisions in front of goal and bad decisions as it was not just about the goals we missed, or dribbling or hitting the post.

"It was not just about missing chances with an open goal, it was also about decisions. Easy decisions to make in easy transitions to counter attack.

"Some players have childish decisions and time helps them to have maturity and to decide better. But some other players stay with childish decision until the end of their career.

'Childish': A frustrated Mourinho criticised his players after the game
Man Utd via Getty Images

"It's a big frustration because they are easy goals to score and to kill the game. On top of that in the last couple of minutes we allow the opposition to throw a few balls to the box and we couldn't defend the last cross so I think we were punished by our mistakes.

"Sometimes you take a point and you say 'OK' and you say it was hard to get it and you accept it as a positive result, that's not the case."

United failed to respond after City's 4-0 win over Bournemouth earlier on Saturday but should have won with Marcus Rashford denied a penalty after he was clipped by Schmeichel.

Mourinho added: "In some other cultures people used to call them intelligent players but in the English culture it depends on the player, the club. I'm not critical (of referee Jon Moss) at all because he had a very good performance."

Leicester are eighth after the point and boss Claude Puel said: "It's a good feeling, it's a good game against a good team. The sending off was a little harsh but we saw fantastic spirit from the players. They deserved it.

"With a positive attitude we stayed in the game and continued to believe in ourselves. It's fantastic."

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