Manchester United’s manager Jose Mourinho reacts during a football match against Feyenoord in Rotterdam on September 15, 2016
Rotterdam, Netherlands, Sep 16 – Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho claims he was never “on the moon” after their positive start to the season and realises the latest back-to-back defeats are not the end of the world.
The Red Devils lost 1-0 to Feyenoord on Thursday in their opening Europa League game which quickly followed last Saturday’s Manchester derby defeat.
Mourinho made eight changes to the line-up that lost 2-1 to Manchester City but very few of them made a difference as they went down to a late strike from Tonny Vilhena.
“When we won the Community Shield and the three Premier League matches, I was not on the moon,” the Portuguese coach said when asked about the scale of the challenge ahead following the last two losses.
“I was not saying that we are a phenomenal team and we are going to destroy every opponent.
“I always said it was a very good start but I was never on the moon. I know that the situation is not click your fingers and everybody is perfect.
“But, to be honest, I think we didn’t play phenomenal matches in these two defeats, but in both I think it is a punishment for the team because we deserved more than the results we got.”
Mourinho, who won his first three Premier League games in charge of United, thought his side’s performance against the Dutch side merited more than they got.
“When you lose matches, there are no miracles in terms of the players’ soul,” he said.
“You win matches and people are happy and full of confidence. You lose matches and people are sad and feel it. That is the normal nature of football players.
“I am here not to let them be in a negative mood or in a negative because we lost two matches in four days.
“Two matches where we didn’t play well for 90 minutes, but two matches where we deserve a better result.”
