Mourinho Blasts Man United players

Jose Mourinho blasted his Manchester United players despite watching them earn a place in the FA Cup semifinals with a 2-0 victory over Brighton at Old Trafford on Saturday night.

Romelu Lukaku and Nemanja Matic scored either side of half-time to ensure United booked their place at Wembley and bounced back from their Champions League exit to Sevilla. But only Matic managed to escape Mourinho’s fire after the game.

The United manager laid into his team — particularly full-backs Luke Shaw, who was substituted at half-time, and Antonio Valencia — and said a number of players appeared “scared to play.”

“I want more personality in the team,” Mourinho told BT Sport. “I felt like Matic was an island of personality, of desire, of control, surrounded by not water but surrounded by lack of class, lack of personality, lack of desire.”

Mourinho said midfielder Scott McTominay had his “worst game” in the first team, but he also praised the effort of the 21-year-old as he had “the big personality to cope with the mistakes.”

“I have to say, for example, McTominay lost more passes today than in all the matches he played together,” Mourinho added. “But he was a Manchester United player, and for me a Manchester United player is a player that when he plays bad, he gives to the team. That’s a question of personality, that’s a Manchester United player for me.

“The perfect Manchester United player is the one that has quality and personality and is consistent on that, but when you play bad — and as a football player you can play bad — when you play bad you must have that personality that a kid with 20 years old had, and some of the others they didn’t have.”