MOURINHO REACTS TO SAINTS DRAW
Jose Mourinho gave his thoughts on the 0-0 draw against Southampton in interviews with MUTV and BT Sport, plus at the press conference at Old Trafford.
The Reds were frustrated in our final game of 2017 with the boss particularly upset a first-half penalty was not awarded for a clear handball by Maya Yoshida, and he also revealed Zlatan Ibrahimovic is sidelined for a month.
NO PENALTY
"Craig Pawson is a fantastic referee, one of the most promising referees in Europe, and it was bad for him. It was one of the key points. The other key points were easy goals that we missed. Another key point was David De Gea's save on the Shane Long shot. But the clear, clear point, especially with a result at 0-0, is a clear penalty that was not given. I watched on the touchline and it looked to me very clear, but it's 50 metres distance, so I gave the referee the benefit of the doubt. I know my players and, when I see players like Juan Mata almost in hysterics claiming, I could understand immediately - no doubt. And then, at half-time, I watch it and it is a penalty like Marcus Rashford at Leicester was a penalty, like Ander Herrera against Manchester City was a penalty and it is unlucky because honestly I told you that and I repeat without a problem, that the three referee performances, Michael Oliver against City, Jon Moss against Leicester and Craig tonight were good referees with good performances, but unlucky decisions for us that punished us."
ZLATAN OUT
"Zlatan is one month out. I don't know about [Romelu] Lukaku. Of course, you miss your striker and your target man. You only have two attacking players on the bench, Rashford and [Anthony] Martial and you lose one of them immediately. I wanted a third change late in the game and I didn't have a third attacking player so that's difficult."
PLAYERS' PERFORMANCES
"I am happy with the players' attitudes and desires. I have no complaint about my players. I think the performance was a big-hearted performance with the players giving everything due to their limits. The majority of them, with the accumulation of matches, their performance was with very good quality on creation, where we have missed chances and half-chances with crosses and balls in the face of the goal. They are half-chances if you arrive on time."
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