Mourinho questions 25-year-old for not performing to his best against Stoke




Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has taken an indirect pop at defender Phil Jones following his side’s 2-2 draw against Stoke City during the weekend.

Manchester United’s 100% start to the season ended after they could manage only a 2-2 draw against Stoke City at the Bet365 Stadium on Saturday and while a draw against the Potters away from home is not the worst result by any stretch of the imagination, not claiming all three points on the day would surely have irritated manager Jose Mourinho.

After going down early on, United went ahead in the 57th minute through a goal from Romelu Lukaku but they conceded the equalizer just six minutes later after failing to sufficiently defend a corner.

What made things worse was the fact that leading up to the set piece, David De Gea had made a sensational save to retain United’s lead and to concede just moments later due to a lapse of concentration has certainly irked Mourinho.

Phil Jones was the guilty party for the concession of the goal as he failed to mark Stoke goalscorer Maxim Chuopo-Moting and following the game, Mourinho has indirectly criticized the England international for not performing to his best during the encounter.

The Portuguese boss said, “(It was a) difficult match for different reasons.  The opponent is difficult, the stadium is difficult. After the international break we’re not the same.

“It’s easy to see some players were not performing at their normal level. We fought hard and were closer to winning than losing. A point is a point, it not what we came for, but a point is a point.

“We didn’t have time (to close the game). Finally the opponent opened a bit … After a few minutes they scored their goal, which I’m not happy with especially, because after a great save (from David de Gea) as a team we have to defend that corner. We couldn’t, they are big and strong in the air, their service is good.”



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