The United boss' threat to make a string of changes against Bournemouth is just the latest public jab at his players. Here are 10 memorable examples
Getty Images"Oh my God! They should all explain the lack of attitude!"
After the 2-1 loss at Huddersfield which first cut them significantly adrift of Manchester City in October, Mourinho complained about his players' lack of attitude.
“[Huddersfield] played like I like, and how it has to be. They played with everything: aggression, desire, motivation, sacrifice. They played with everything, and we didn’t.
“They beat us on attitude. When I lose matches I like to lose matches because the opponent was better than us, and had more quality than us. When you lose a football match because of attitude, that’s really bad.
“I heard that Ander Herrera is in the flash interviews and he’s saying that the attitude and the desire was poor. Oh my God! When a player says that, and when a player feels that, I think they should all go to the press conference and explain why because I can’t explain.”
AdvertisementGetty/Goal"He was disappearing"
The writing was on the wall for Henrikh Mkhitaryan at Manchester United after he was left out of a string of fixtures in the autumn. When asked about the Armenian's absence, Mourinho didn't hold back with his assessment.
“I was not happy with his last performances and I am not speaking about one or two, I am speaking about three, four or five. He started the season very well and after that step by step he was disappearing.
"His performance levels in terms of goalscoring, assists, high pressing, recovery of the ball high up the pitch, bringing the team with him as a number 10, were decreasing step by step.
“There came a time when that was enough because the others work to have a chance, everybody works to have a chance, so it’s as simple as that.”Michael Regan"Some players will make childish decisions their whole careers"
United threw away two points in December with the late concession of a goal to Harry Maguire at Leicester City in a 2-2 draw despite having earlier dominated. Maguire's ability to capitalise on the space left by an injured Chris Smalling infuriated Mourinho, who blamed his "childish" players for not reacting.
“I had the chance to speak to Ashley Young and to tell him the way the team had to be in position because of Smalling’s difficulty. But I think [there was] a lack of maturity because I cannot stop the game and give a team talk for the last two minutes. The players have to immediately adapt and to read the game, which they didn’t.
“So we had childish decisions in front of goal, bad decisions. Not just goals we missed, but also easy decisions to make… Some players they have childish decisions and time helps them to have maturity. But some players stay with childish decisions until the end of their careers.”ENJOYED THIS STORY?
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Getty Images"Four mistakes after 15 seconds"
It took Christian Eriksen less than 11 seconds to score the opening goal against United in January, and following the eventual 2-0 Tottenham win Mourinho spoke of his fury at the string of mistakes his players made in the build-up to the first goal.
“I don’t think it’s very normal to concede a goal after 15 seconds. After kick-off is ridiculous, especially ridiculous because the players watched it beforehand. We analyse opponents, we work on opponents’ dynamic and routines, the players knew the long ball, they knew Harry Kane, they knew everything.
“And then we don’t press the ball: one mistake. We don’t win the ball in the air: second mistake. We don’t win the second ball on the ground: third mistake. We don’t cover the full-back inside when Eriksen comes: four mistakes. Four mistakes after 15 seconds and you are losing 1-0 against a good team.”