José Mourinho has admitted he rebuked members of his backroom staff during Manchester United’s Europa League tie with Zorya Luhansk on Thursday after confusion over his team’s organisation at set-pieces.
Both sets of players were out on the pitch and ready to kick off the match, which United went on to win 1-0, when Mourinho noticed that Zorya’s players were deployed in a different formation to the instructions provided to him by his coaches.
The United manager called over assistant Rui Faria and Paul Pogba for a discussion on the touchline and appeared dissatisfied with the dossier that had been prepared for the match. Television cameras captured him glaring at analyst Giovanni Cerra, before striding over to the bench and taking out his frustrations on his staff.
Asked about the incident after the match, Mourinho said: “It was set pieces, organisation, they changed their team before the game. Paul Pogba was a bit confused with the changes and obviously I want my assistants to take care of all the details.”
A goal from Zlatan Ibrahimovic ensured United eventually won the match, although Mourinho was more concerned with railing against United’s upcoming fixture schedule afterwards, starting with Stoke on Sunday at midday. He also refused to get too carried away by a third successive victory in all competitions.
“One week - three defeats, another week - three victories,” he reflected. “I was not depressed by the three defeats and I’m not over the moon after three victories. We have another game on Sunday and that’s now the most important one.”
