Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho was left unhappy with Ander Herrera’s remark that Huddersfield beat them because they had “more passion”.
Mourinho’s United were beaten 2-1 at the John Smith’s Stadium, with first-half goals from Aaron Mooy and Laurent Depoitre following mistakes by Juan Mata and substitute Victor Lindelof.
Herrera said in a post-match interview with MUTV: “They played with more passion than us in the first 30 minutes,” and Mourinho later took aim at the Spanish midfielder, saying he thinks players should explain their attitude drop in post-match press conferences because he was perplexed by it.
“They beat us on attitude,” said the Portuguese manager. “When I lose matches I like to lose because the opponent was better than us, had more quality than us. When you lose a football match because of attitude, that is really bad.
“I heard Ander Herrera in the flash interviews saying the attitude and desire was poor. Oh, my God. When a player says that, when a player feels that, I think they should all go to the press conference and explain why because I cannot explain that.
“I don’t even remember a friendly match where our attitude was so poor. I feel really disappointed and if I was a Manchester United supporter, not a manager, I would be really disappointed.
“We deserved to lose. The team that wanted it more, wanted to work more, compete more and be more aggressive, they won. And when the best team win, nothing to say.
“I don’t know why, and I’m not going to be critical of my players with you, I have to analyse with them. But I just want to be as honest and pragmatic as possible and say that the best team won.
Sky Sports