Jose Mourinho declared himself “happy with the result”
after Manchester United earned a 2-0 win over Brighton & Hove Albion in the Emirates FA Cup quarter-final, which earns the Reds a place in the semi-finals at Wembley next month.
Romelu Lukaku opened the scoring for Mourinho's men on 37 minutes, after the game's outstanding performer, Nemanja Matic, found him at the back post with a deep, curling cross, to which the Belgian applied a powerful headed finish.
Matic himself then doubled the lead in the final ten minutes to put the result beyond reasonable doubt, helping the Reds reach the semi-final for the 29th time in the club's history. Here's what the manager had to say when questioned by the media following the victory...
Happy with the result, but not the performance
“No [I didn't get the reaction I wanted from the players], because the game was more or less in control for the majority of the tie. We scored two goals and they didn't score. I think we clearly deserved [to win] but we didn't play the way I wanted the players to play. I didn't have the reaction from all of them. I had the reaction from some of them and because some of them were mentally strong enough and with the football quality to play was the reason why we won. But in a team of 11, when you don't have a minimum of six or seven players performing and wanting to play and wanting the responsibility to have the ball, want the desire really to play - because one thing is to play, another thing is to be on the pitch - so it's difficult to have a good performance at all. But I'm happy with the result.”
I have to feel frustrated
“When I spent two days working on the faster build-up and the ball arriving earlier in between the lines and in attacking areas, that depends on qualities and decisions by the defenders in possession but it also depends on the movement from the attacking players. When I spent two days working on this and I arrived here, attacking players hiding behind defenders and not wanting the ball between the lines, defenders just playing square passes and taking 10-12 passes for the ball to go from one line to another line, I have to feel frustrated, because I think as a coach the biggest frustration sometimes is not the result - because sometimes a bad result can happen - sometimes the biggest frustration for me is when I work on the pitch and then I see contradictions in the match.”
Attacking connection didn't work
“The statistics are fake. Sometimes teams have 10 shots and eight of them go to the stands and one goes into the goal but is an easy shot to save, so for me, statistics don't mean a lot. What means [a lot] for me is we prepare the team to play in a different way, to be much more aggressive, to attack the last line much more, to play in between the lines much more and that connection between defenders in possession and attacking players wanting the ball and having the right movement to have the ball, but that connection didn't work.”
Explanation of Young-for-Shaw substitution
“It was a decision from one player to another player in the same position. I wanted to defend better, I wanted my defensive line to be more solid in relation to a few, not many, but a few offensive movements they made from the sides. I wanted more personality in the team because many, many times I felt that Matic was an island of personality, desire and control, surrounded by not water but surrounded by lack of personality, class and desire.”
Mourinho praised both Nemanja Matic and Scott McTominay for showing "personality" against Brighton.
McTominay is a Manchester United player
“I have to say, for example, that Scott McTominay lost more passes today than in all of the [other] matches he played together 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 for me is a player that has personality and quality and is consistent on that. But when you play bad, and as a football player you can play bad, you must have that personality that the kid of 20 years old had and some of the others didn't have.”