This is a tad embarrassing from Mourinho…
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho couldn’t resist a little dig at Antonio Conte after today’s 1-0 defeat to Chelsea, but he could at least have tried a little harder with his excuses.
The Portuguese spoke after the game about the difficulties his side faced in attempting to break Chelsea down, as he suggested the Blues played a very defensively-minded game.
This coming from Mourinho – a manager who can boast just one goal in his last ten away games against fellow top six sides.
And while Chelsea may too play a relatively cautious game at times, they at least had the craft to work something up front, whereas United consistently struggle to create chances when they shut up shop against the big sides.
Still, that didn’t stop the former Blues boss getting in a swipe at the tactics of his former club after today’s game.
‘I think they scored the goal in the only period where they were on top of the game,’ Mourinho told Sky Sports, as quoted by the Metro.
What has happened to Jose Mourinho? ? pic.twitter.com/PrwhS1pexD
— CaughtOffside (@caughtoffside) November 5, 2017
‘Because, apart from that, the game was even. The game was controlled by us, the game was controlled by them. They had their chances, we had our chances.
‘And with the first goal they found themselves winning and bringing more people to defend but, knowing they defend with a lot of people, we had a go.’
As ever, this will have to go down as successful mind games from Mourinho, who diverted attention away from his team’s poor display and his own increasingly dire record in the big games by shifting the attention onto Conte’s tactics and by also failing to shake the Italian’s hand at full time.