Jose Mourinho could not fault his Manchester United team for their effort in defeat to Liverpool on Sunday.
"They play in relation to their qualities, the same way Liverpool play in relation to their qualities," said Mourinho, like a man who had just been handed an unsatisfactory toolbox and asked to do a job rather than being the one who had two-and-a-half years to assemble it.
Mourinho felt it was Liverpool's physicality which saw them win the day. In particular, he praised their left-back, Andy Robertson.
They are fast, they are aggressive, they are intense, they are physical, they are objective. They play 200mph with the ball and without the ball.
I am still tired just looking at Robertson. He makes, I think, 100m sprint per minute, absolutely incredible. These are qualities.
When the game was really intense in the first 20 - 25 minutes for us, it was difficult to cope with it.
He then highlighted what he perceives as the injury-proneness of players at Manchester United.
"We have lots of problems related with physicality; players that I could consider injury-prone. Some of our players, they are always injured and it is not with me [as manager], it was before me.
"If you look to the stats with Mr Van Gaal and before David [Moyes], we have players that are permanently injured. When you are permanently injured, physicality is difficult to get. Then there are qualities that a player has or doesn't have. You cannot improve, you cannot make them have.
"I give you an example: Robertson, Mané, Salah, Wijnaldum, Keita, Fabinho - they are physical players. On top of that, they are good players, technically.
"I have lots of good players, technically, but we don't have lots of players with that intensity, with that physicality. When the game has high levels of intensity, it is difficult for us."
