Mourinho blames referee and bad luck for United loss

The United manager pointed to a mix of “individual and collective mistakes” as the reasoning for the result, with Miguel Britos’ challenge on Anthony Martial before Watford’s opening goal a point of contention – although a defensive lapse and mindless foul by Marouane Fellaini cost them in the late stages.

United levelled through Marcus Rashford in the 62nd minute and briefly held sway before Watford struck twice in a rousing finale with goals from substitute Juan Zuniga in the 83rd minute and Troy Deeney from the spot in added time.

Following a derby defeat by Manchester City last weekend and the midweek Europa League loss to Feyenoord, Mourinho and United have had a rough eight days.

“I reflect on three factors from the match, but only one of them I can improve”, Mourinho said to BBC after the game.

“We have to improve, no doubt, individually and collectively”. But I think if you’re Manchester United you need more than that; I think you need someone who can stop the play, but he needs to be capable of controlling the game of football as well, playing forward, passing forward.

It was the first time Mourinho had lost three consecutive competitive matches since 2001/02 with Porto, and the Portuguese was clearly not happy about it. Luck is not something we can control.

“In the eyes of everyone, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a Manchester United fan or a Watford fan or whatever, it was obvious”.

Watford started strongly and might have taken the lead 12 minutes in when Odion Ighalo missed an open goal when the ball fell to him on the edge of the area.

“But their second goal is a mistake that goes against our plan and our training because our intention was for their wing backs to be pressed and not let them progress”.

That win, the Hornets’ first in the Premier League this season, eased the pressure after a slow start to the campaign that has also seen them exit the EFL Cup at the hands of League One team Gillingham. “Then, another individual mistake [for the third goal]”.

“You can follow my other interviews in the past weeks, you know that even when we had chances in our favour the referees didn’t allow us [the decisions]”, he said. A fantastic save (Gomes from Ibrahimovic), nearly win the game then we lose. “And we lost again in our best moment”.

Mourinho later described the first goal as “ridiculous” and told the BBC that he thought United were “the best team”. We can improve, we can work on it.