Jose Mourinho Says Man Utd Lacking Physicality, Points Finger at LVG, Moyes

Jose Mourinho heaped praise on Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool side after their 3-1 victory over Manchester United on Sunday and said his squad simply did not have the physicality to compete.

The Portuguese explained he inherited a group of players with unreliable fitness from former United bosses Louis van Gaal and David Moyes, and they could not match Liverpool's intensity at Anfield, per the Daily Mail's Dominic King:

"We have lots of players that I could consider injury prone because some of our players are always injured and it is not with me. It was before me. It was if you look to the stats with Mr Van Gaal and before (him) with David Moyes.

"If you look to that period we have lots of players who are permanently injured. When you are permanently injured, physicality is very difficult to get. Then there are qualities that a player has or does not have. You cannot improve or make them have it.

"I will give you an example: [Andrew] Robertson, [Sadio] Mane; [Mohamed] Salah, [Georginio] Wijnaldum, [Naby] Keita, Fabinho, they are physical players and, on top of that, they are good players technically. I also have lot of good players technically but we don't have lots of players with that intensity."

Mourinho is now in his third season at United since Van Gaal was sacked at the end of the 2015-16 campaign.

Of the starting XI he put out against Liverpool, only two players, Ander Herrera and Matteo Darmian, were signed under Van Gaal.

Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images

Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard are academy graduates, Ashley Young and David De Gea were brought to the club by Sir Alex Ferguson, and Diego Dalot, Victor Lindelof, Eric Bailly, Nemanja Matic and Romelu Lukaku are all Mourinho signings.

Meanwhile, £89 million Paul Pogba remained on the bench throughout the 90 minutes.

United were in the game for 70 minutes against Liverpool. Sadio Mane opened the scoring in the 24th minute, but Lingard hit back with an equaliser soon after.

However, Klopp then threw on Xherdan Shaqiri with 20 minutes to go, and the Swiss forward scored twice to secure all three points and send Liverpool back to the top of the Premier League table.

Both of Shaqiri's goals came via deflections, but Liverpool deserved the win as they bombarded United's goal for much of the match:

Mourinho demonstrated rare candour after the defeat as he said his side were largely outplayed.

He compared the current Liverpool side to his former Porto side, which he led to UEFA Champions League glory in 2004, per King:

"When the game has high levels of intensity, it is difficult for us. Our first 20 minutes was difficult. When we had the ball, and the tension and intensity went down it was easier for us to be in the game. You can compare my Porto team with Liverpool. You can compare. The qualities of the players are there. It was my best team in defensive transition. We lose the ball and we bite like mad dogs and recover the ball after a few seconds.

"The players gave everything, and when the players give everything I am never frustrated towards them. I have a good feeling towards them. They play in relation to their qualities, the same way Liverpool play in relation to their qualities.

"They are fast, they are intense, they are aggressive, they are physical, they are objective. They play 200 miles per hour with and without the ball. I am still tired just looking at Robertson. He makes 100-metre sprints per minute. Absolutely incredible. These are qualities."

Despite the defeat, United remain sixth in the Premier League table.

However, they should now be more concerned with those teams behind them than those ahead.

Just to get to Arsenal in fifth, United will need to bridge an eight-point gap, and Chelsea are 11 points ahead in the fourth and final Champions League spot.

Meanwhile, the seven sides below United are all within five points of the 20-time league title winners:

Another couple of poor results over the Christmas period and United could find themselves entrenched in the bottom half of the table.

Unsurprisingly, there are some expecting Mourinho to be sacked following Sunday's performance:

But it seems unlikely the United hierarchy will pull the trigger during the busy festive season, or at all before the end of the campaign.

The Red Devils have a relatively easy run of Premier League fixtures coming up before they face Reading in the FA Cup on January 5.

The Manchester giants face Cardiff City next weekend ahead of meetings with Huddersfield Town, Bournemouth and Newcastle United.

If Mourinho's side can pick up four wins from those matches, they could revive their chances of challenging for the top four and also draw themselves away from the chasing pack.