Jose Mourinho bemoaned his growing injury list, but insisted he was “very happy” with his players in Manchester United’s 1-1 draw at home to Swansea on Sunday.
Wayne Rooney’s first-half penalty was cancelled out by Gylfi Sigurdsson’s free-kick as Manchester United missed out on the chance to climb into the top four, and the manager’s frustration was increased as Luke Shaw and Eric Bailly limped off injured.
They join an injury list that includes Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Marcos Rojo, Chris Smalling and Phil Jones and Mourinho refused to criticise his players after a draw at home against a team in the relegation zone.
He said: “If I analyse the performance, I will obviously find weakness, that is obvious and it is not difficult to find that.
“But I cannot do that. I cannot isolate from the context and the context is the boys gave everything they can.
“If I had more fresh players, I would change. It was easy to see Ashley Young and Jesse Lingard were above the others in terms of freshness, sharpness. It was easy to see that and it was easy to see many players in trouble.
“But we don’t have others, that’s the problem.
“The second half was our best period. We had control, we had chances to score the second goal and probably relax and kill the game and then they scored a beautiful free-kick.
“We lose two points, but I’m very happy with the players. Very happy. I cannot demand anything more from them.
“I am more than happy.”
The game was the ninth played in April by Mourinho’s side, who play the first leg of their Europa League semi-final against Celta Vigo on Thursday.
And Mourinho, who saw his side win the EFL Cup in February but lose to Chelsea in the FA Cup quarter-final, insists his players are being punished for their success.
COMMENTS