Manchester United were ultimately made to pay for their slow start against their cross-city rivals in a superb derby earlier today. City were exceptional in the first-half, with City passing United to death while Kevin De Bruyne - sold by Mourinho at Chelsea - tormented the home side.
As good as City were, United didn't really start playing until Zlatan Ibrahimovic's acrobatic goal, and Mourinho's displeasure was evinced at half-time: he hooked Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Jesse Lingard at half-time: both were utterly anonymous.
In his post-game interview, Mourinho explained the defeat to Geoff Shreeves, and said that, in hindsight, he wouldn't have selected some of those who were given an opportunity to impress from the start.
Mourinho said that he had a number of players began well below their normal performance level, going on to say that a couple of players didn't give him what he needed:
I had two or three players in the first half that, if I know what is going to happen, I don’t play them. But this is football and sometimes players disappoint managers. It’s my fault because I’m the manager and it’s always my fault because it’s my choice.
Watch his full interview with Sky here, replete with the most backhanded of compliments to referee Mark Clattenburg:
https://youtu.be/tO889h2jSX0
