Key Quotes: Jose's verdict on the Brighton defeat

The Reds went down to Pascal Gross's second-half header, which was enough to ensure the Seagulls' Premier League survival and condemn United to their first away defeat in the Premier League since February. Jesse Lingard spurned a golden late opportunity to equalise, but shanked his shot wide after neat interplay with Marcus Rashford.

 

After the match, the boss offered up his thoughts to the media...

 

WE WEREN’T GOOD ENOUGH 

“Not good enough, because the players that replaced others didn’t perform at a good level and when individuals don’t perform at a good level, it’s difficult for the team to perform at a good level. Maybe now you understand why some players play more than others and you don’t ask why A, B or C don’t play more.” 

“My players, if you ask them, they will tell you that I told them before the match what was going to happen and I told them at half-time what was going to happen. I knew it and I told them, but that’s what we got. Of course, we had a positive reaction in the last 20 minutes. But that’s obviously normal because nobody likes to lose and when you are losing the game, you always try and when a team that is winning can feel that victory is so important for them, it’s normal that they feel a bit of pressure and in the end they defended more and gave the ball more to the opponent. That’s what happened – it’s normal and we couldn’t score a goal and get a point. Overall, the attitude from the first minute, especially during the first half, they were obviously stronger than us, more appetite, they felt the game with different emotions.” 

 

“I didn’t succeed in persuading my players that the four points we need to finish second doesn’t look very important for them. For me, it is but for some of my players, it doesn’t look like it’s very important and obviously, for the Brighton boys, a point would probably be enough for them and means a lot to them to give absolutely everything they had to give. They got the bonus of their attitude.”

WE MUST TRY TO GET FOUR MORE POINTS  

“I wouldn’t say I am disappointed because I know them [the players] but for some of them, the possibility to start the game, the possibility to give reason to the ones that during the season are always critical towards my choices – why always Lukaku, why always Lukaku, why always Lukaku. You have the answer why always Lukaku. Why always this? Why always that? You have the answer. Probably we are not as good individually as people think and I keep saying that to finish top four is great and it’s more than great if we finish second, but now we need four points and we must try to get them