Football
Rob Dawson, Correspondent 6y

Jose Mourinho says past success makes him easy target for criticism

MANCHESTER -- Jose Mourinho has insisted his track record of success makes him as easy target for criticism.

Manchester United have come under fire this week for their style of football despite drawing with Liverpool at Anfield and beating Benfica in Lisbon in the Champions League.

Ahead of Saturday's trip to Huddersfield, Mourinho's team are second in the Premier League and on the verge of progressing in Europe.

But after winning league titles in four different countries and lifting the Champions League twice, the 54-year-old believes he is held to a higher standard than some of his counterparts.

He told a news conference on Friday: "I think it's my fault, because people are used to my teams getting good results and winning titles.

"Other people have more time than I have. Other people have different standards than I have and that's not a problem for me at all.

"We are going to lose matches, that's obvious, and I can imagine we are going to have even more criticism than we have now. But honestly, no problem."

Mourinho was drawn into a spat with Chelsea boss Antonio Conte this week after saying other managers "cry" about injuries.

It was suggested to Conte after Chelsea's draw with Roma on Wednesday that Mourinho was talking about him, with the Italian biting back that the United manager should only "look at himself."

At his own news conference on Friday, Conte called the whole episode "stupid" but insisted he did not regret his comments.

Mourinho declined the chance to hit back, although he repeated his claim that some managers look to find excuses in the length of their injury lists.

He said: "I don't speak to him. I don't know why he speaks to me. That's no problem.

"Maybe it's not his fault. Maybe it's the journalists' fault when probably they've passed him a wrong message. I know what I said after the match.

"It is the reality. There are managers all over the world that, by philosophy, they prefer to speak about injuries, prefer to try to find excuses of a hypothetical failure based on injuries.

"Since last season we had big injuries and last season, without Lukaku, Zlatan was even more important for us.

"Our philosophy is not to moan, not to cry. I moan and cry about other things. I moan about the fixtures, moan about no time to rest. I moan about why I don't understand why we play Saturday after Wednesday when we should play Sunday.

"I moan about this all the time but not about injuries. When managers say I moan about the fixtures then he is right but nobody can say I moan about injuries."

After United kept their ninth clean sheet in 13 games in Lisbon on Wednesday night, Mourinho insisted he would not be made to feel like good defending is a "crime."

He went further on Friday by insisting his team have to be well organised at the back because they can not rely on scoring heavily every week -- despite scoring four times in four separate Premier League games already this season.

He said: "If a team defends badly, concedes five goals but attacks phenomenally well and scores six, then that's absolutely beautiful and amazing.

"I know my team cannot score four, five or six every match. I know that, especially with a certain profile of matches, it is difficult for us to score a lot of goals.

"We have to try to find balances and I'm really happy with what the team is doing. Critics, critics -- no problem."

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