Jose Mourinho admitted he was “not surprised” by his Manchester United team’s latest defeat, as they fell 2-1 away to Valencia to squander a chance to finish top of their Champions League group.
Juventus’s unexpected defeat to Young Boys would have let United back in, but a dismal display saw them beaten by a side who are currently 15th in La Liga.
“I didn’t learn anything from this game, nothing that happened surprise me at all,” Mourinho said. “No no no.
“Before the game I told the players if we win tonight and Juventus win we did our job if we don’t win and Juventus doesn’t win, we can blame ourselves.”
The Portuguese even added that the team only came back late on because he made changes he “didn’t want to make”, bringing on Jesse Lingard, Ashley Young and Marcus Rashford, with the striker then claiming a late header. Mourinho now has selection issues ahead of the trip to Premier League leaders Liverpool on Sunday, but only because of injuries. Marcos Rojo is now out of that game to add to the list the manager relayed.
“In the end my team improved when I made the changes I didn’t want to make. Which is a little bit of frustration because I didn’t want to play the three players I played in the second-half.
“[Chris] Smalling is injured, [Victor] Lindelof is injured, [Matteo] Darmian is injured, [Anthony] Martial is injured, [Diogo] Dalot is injured, the only two players I could bring and didn’t was [David] De Gea and [Nemanja] Matic.
“These were the two changes I say that could play, apart from that nobody.”
