Jose Mourinho Criticises Manchester United Stars After Defeat to 'Lucky' Bristol

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho said some of his players "didn't want to come into the office" on Wednesday after he saw them lose 2-1 to "lucky" Bristol City in the Carabao Cup. 

According to the Daily Mail's Jack Gaughan, he said:

"It's a big day for them and their supporters. For us it was just one more day in the office and some of them probably didn't want to come into the office.

"They fought like this was the game of their lives, which it probably was. It was a beautiful day for football.

"I congratulate them. The main thing of it is that they won. [We] lacked the intensity that they had. Not just physically but mentally."

However, despite his suggestion a number of United stars were not up for the match, Mourinho added, per Adam Higgins for the club's official website: "I don't want to blame the players at all because I think they were professional—it wasn't a case of 'we don't care about the game' or 'we don't have responsibility' or 'we don't have pride.'"

The Portuguese was evidently not in the mood to discuss the defeat at length after the game, as noted by BBC Sport's Shamoon Hafez:

That was hardly surprising given the manner of it, per football blogger Hesham Bilal-Hafiz:

Though Mourinho made 10 changes to his starting lineup from last weekend's win over West Bromwich Albion in the Premier League, he nevertheless named a strong XI packed with plenty of first-team regulars including Paul Pogba, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial.

An emphatic strike from Joe Bryan handed the Robins the lead at Ashton Gate after the visitors had struck the woodwork twice, before Zlatan Ibrahimovic pulled United level with a deflected free-kick.

However, Korey Smith netted in added time to take City to the semi-finals of the competition, where they will take on Manchester City over two legs.

Samuel Luckhurst of the Manchester Evening News believes United's players fully deserved any criticism they received:

Mourinho thought they did enough to get through: "I think we don't deserve to lose, but we lost because the opponent was lucky."

He added: "They had the luck of the game, but they fought to be lucky. Sometimes you think that luck comes from nowhere, but normally luck comes from effort, from belief, which they had."

The Championship side took full advantage of a lacklustre United performance and were fully deserving of their win. They have now beaten four Premier League sides this season—as many or more than nine teams in the division have managed in the top flight.

While the Robins' victory serves as an embarrassment to Mourinho and his team, they have perhaps spared them from further humiliation against City, whose superiority was clear in the Manchester derby on December 10 and could have been even more pronounced in a two-legged contest.

With City 11 points clear in the Premier League, United realistically have just two chances of silverware this season, and the UEFA Champions League will be particularly difficult.

The Red Devils' best chance of success will be in the FA Cup, though that may not be enough to salvage their campaign if they don't improve soon.