Manchester United news: Jose Mourinho hits out at Anthony Martial and Antonio Valencia after defeat to Liverpool
Manchester United lost 4-1 to Liverpool in Ann Arbor, leading Mourinho to question some of his players
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Jose Mourinho has hit out at a number of his first-team players following the 4-1 humbling by Liverpool in a preseason game in Ann Arbor.
Liverpool showed off their new signings in the United States as Xherdan Shaqiri scored a stunning overhead kick to finish off the desolation for Mourinho.
And his frustrations carried into his post-match press conference as he spoke of how disappointed he was with Antonio Valencia, despite only recently naming him his new captain, and how Anthony Martial, who wants to leave the club, should have been back with the squad following the birth of his child.
“We play Real Madrid and we have no more players than what we have,” he told MUTV. “Antonio Valencia comes from holiday – I think too much holiday for him. His condition was not good when he was back, then injury and also go back.
“Anthony Martial has the baby and after the baby is born – beautiful baby, full of health, thank God – he should be here and he is not here.
“So we have Alexis (Sanchez) and (Juan) Mata who play every minute of every match and now we have Real Madrid and after that Bayern Munich and that’s our start.”
Mourinho urged a number of his World Cup stars to come back to work earlier than scheduled to help the team out, as he lamented the lack of senior players available to him.
“I just hope the boys on deserved holidays, they take care of themselves a little bit and I hope somebody wants to do what (Marcus) Rashford and (Phil) Jones decide to do, which is to be back a little bit earlier to try and help the team because for the beginning of the season we are going to be in trouble,” he added.
“The majority of the players that played are not going to play – some of them are not even going to belong to the squad.
“I know the ones that are not always ready – sometimes you need them and you don’t have them. Eric Bailly was injured, he shouldn’t be playing, but when he saw that (Chris) Smalling in the warm-up was coming out, he made a decision by himself not to let his team play with five kids in the back against (Mohamed) Salah, Mane and company so he put himself there for 90 minutes.
“When we had gasoline we competed, 1-1 after 65 minutes, after that gasoline is gone.
“(Ander) Herrera, (Juan) Mata, Alexis (Sanchez), (Matteo) Darmian, these are the boys we have, they cannot give more. So this match was for nothing.”
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