Jose Mourinho on his previous interview has Assigns Blame for United Upset Loss at Watford

What a difference a week (and an additional day) makes. A week ago Saturday, all the Manchester United news stories circulating in the Twitterverse, blogosphere, cyberspace and media world revolved around the Manchester Derby, a game so huge that it was being shown in 190 countries.

Last weekend, United were undefeated and the narrative related to establishing themselves as Premier League title front-runners.

After all, the Red Devils were undefeated and home favorites against also undefeated cross-town rivals Manchester City.

Today, after three straight defeats, it’s all heading downhill with mind-blowing speed.

United’s 3-1 loss at Watford today followed the dropped decision versus Manchester City and a disaster at Feyenoord in the Europa League, where the team appeared disinterested. It’s possible that the disinterest United conveyed in the Europa League led to them losing the fine edge for the time being, and hence they weren’t properly keyed up for this one.

As Chris Smalling told MUTV heading into this one, three straight losses is completely unacceptable yet that’s exactly where we are right now. This is Watford’s first victory over United in 30 years.

United Manager Jose Mourinho broke it down for BT Sport:

“There’s no debate, no controversy. It’s an obvious situation, like last week against Manchester City, but it’s something I cannot control or be critical with. In the first half, for the first 25 or 30 minutes, we didn’t play well.

“That’s something we can control and improve, then the referee and linesman’s mistake is not under my control. I can do nothing to improve it.”

“The second half was much better, we got the draw [equalising at 1-1] then, after that, we were the team [who looked likelier to win]. [Heurelho] Gomes made a phenomenal save [from a Zlatan Ibrahimovic header]. Luck is not something we can control. What we can control is individual and collective mistakes. The second goal is an individual mistake. We know we have to press the wing backs outside the box. Then, another individual mistake [for the third goal].”

You saw Jose Mourinho calling out the officiating there, he also addressed some of the individual player mistakes.

“I feel that some individuals probably feel the pressure and responsibility too much,” he said. “But from a collective point of view, I only have good things to say about them. At 1-1 everyone thinks we are going to win the game. We were showing complete control, intensity, creation.

“But their second goal is a mistake that goes against our plan and our training, because our intention was for their wing-backs to be pressed and not let them progress.

“And what happened was the guy gets the ball 20-25 metres away from our box and instead of being pressed, we give him the space to progress. [Nordin] Amrabat receives the ball and our left-back [Shaw] is 25 metres from him instead of five.”

“But even at 25 you have to jump and go and press, but no, we wait. This is a tactical but also a mental attitude. It’s something that doesn’t become perfect in a couple of weeks. So we have to improve, no doubt, individually and collectively. And that’s my job,” Jose Mourinho continued.

“We started the season very well with [winning] the Community Shield and three victories in a row in the Premier League, the best start that a new manager has had at Manchester United I think. But was I thinking that my team was ready, perfect, unbeatable? Not at all.”

“I was completely aware that we were not perfect, with lots of players who are not end products and can make their own mistakes.”