Premier League – Boxing Day: Manchester United 2-2 Burnley
Manchester United were still in Christmas mode and very slow to act as the red Devils awfully started the game. They let Burnley taking command of this game after just 120 seconds. Things will not get better with a second goal. At the break Man Utd were down 2-0 and no much more to say on the poor performance displayed by Jose Mourinho’s men during the first forty-five minutes.
At the break, the coach brought in Jesse Lingard, eager to show his manager than he is worth more than a sub in this squad. And the youngster deliver, first with a beautiful back-heel touch to get United back in it and finally on the verge of the loss at the ninetieth minute, he scored the equalizer. The score would stand with a second consecutive draw for Manchester while rival Chelsea is closing behind.
Coach Mourinho comments on the game:
“The problem with the first-half performance is another ‘s’ goal – you are intelligent and don’t need me to tell the whole world the other letters in the word. What we are having now is lots of really very bad goals against us, so that obviously has an impact in the game.
At 2-0, it makes things more difficult at half-time, I need my players to believe in them[selves] and I need them to believe in me; to accept the risk and not be afraid to lose three or four. To not be afraid of what was possible – what didn’t happen but it could happen, that there is a negative reaction from the supporters.
In the second half, it was impossible to concede a goal – impossible – because they didn’t cross the midfield line, they didn’t have two or three passes in a row. So, the second half was really ours – totally ours – but we still only scored two goals.
I’m very happy with their character and part of that was also the way they played and tried to break down a very organized wall. I keep saying that to defend well is a quality and they defended very well. So also credit to Burnley to concede only two goals against such strong pressure.
The boys are doing what they can and they are doing fine. I say, in the last two matches, we had 15 chances to score and we conceded three goals and an amazing free-kick so the boys do what they can. They are trying hard, with problems as we have injuries, but we have the boys fighting hard. I’m not happy with the result and I wasn’t happy with the result against Leicester of course, but I’m happy with my players. No criticism to my players.”
