A Premier League veteran has leapt to the defence of Red Devils boss Jose Mourinho, stating that only poor finishing let the team down against Spurs
Sam Allardyce believes that Manchester United outplayed Tottenham in Monday's 3-0 defeat at Old Trafford and feels that Jose Mourinho has come in for unfair criticism in the wake of the result.
Indeed, Mourinho stormed out of his post-match press conference after a heated discussion with the media, the Portuguese boss demanding respect after citing his three Premier League titles as a mark of his pedigree as a manager.
Still, many regarded the heavy defeat as the beginning of a full-blown crisis in Manchester, with alleged friction between boss and players – most notably Paul Pogba – also the topic of much debate.
Regardless, English top-flight veteran Allardyce feels that his compatriot has been unfairly chastised by the media and pointed to a surplus of facts to support his backing of the Red Devils boss.
“Man Utd were so good – I'll tell you why,” the former England boss told Talksport.
“The stats were: 57 per cent possession, 23 shots at goal, five on target [for Man Utd].
“Tottenham had 43 per cent possession, nine shots on goal and five on target.
“It's only Tottenham's finishing that got them the victory. Normally that result would never, never happen.
“So is it a freak result or not? I mean when you've had 23 shots at your own place and you've not scored that's not the manager's fault.
“The manager always gets blamed at the end of the day, but he's set his team out to go and attack – that's what he said at his press conference – they've gone and attacked and created enough chances and enough opportunities to win the game comfortably.
“They've failed to take those chances and they ended up getting sucker-punched by what, in the end, was pretty poor defending.
“It's alright saying it's a disaster, it is, because it's three-nil, but if you're a manager you'd say to your players at the end of the day 'look, we cut the silly mistakes out, keep getting this possession rate and this shot rate and we will win far more games than we'll lose.'
“They [the media] are steering all the way around it because it was three-nil, but no one's looking at the real facts.
“The facts were: they did create more than Tottenham, they did outplay Tottenham, but unfortunately missed their chances and their slack defending and some brilliant finishing by Tottenham was the difference.”
Sudhir_Gosavi
120
Sam is just Bang - on hope all other JM haters should understand this. Manager tactics worked possession , shot on total attempts are shows the manager tactics poor finish is not in hands of manager. it's the player who supposed to be blamed at all. JM proved what he is capable of ...he can play attacking football ...but if the poor finish also the poor defending is there ...it must to park a bus.
dekalnstu
100
Big Sam got this one right, he's not a fan of Mou but clearly the reality is there utd had the game on all fronts except we didn't convert our chances so for me the are lots of positive from that game moreover had the so called bus been park n out play by spurs then u could make noise... I'm sure Edwood will agree at least utd needed the 2 signing Lukaku needs help while the defense is leaking,meanwhile it's 3 games 1win lost long way to go oh....
Peyclortz
86
I totally agreed, tried to win the game but the finishing are sometimes poor.
RuthlessFrenchMan
76
Okay This is pure sarcasm why is everybody roasting Manchester United The season has just started #MourhinoOut
EL B
70
At least someone is sayn something. Jose's beef with d media is taking d attention away from yesterday. They like seeing him this way. But i take the positives from d game. Thats someone weve all been critical about his style of play all through, but yesterday he went all out. Pity we had to concede that way.
Shepherd1
45
Very true at first half we had complete control of the game but we couldn't take our chances And in the second half Spurs were able to convert their chances and the defense error cost us the game If we had converted out chances Spurs would have been out of the game by first half
denbilops
42
I don't know what the journalists are upto. When you defend and win the game they talk about the way u play and not about the result. At the same time when u play attacking style n loose they talk about the result alone. Moreover these days the journalists are the one who decides the fate of the manager. Pathetic.
preciousgeoffrey59
37
I don't know about that but one thing is certain to me and that is where ever Wenger is he must be smiling and enjoying what is happening to mourinho's United at the moment
Booeiortuz
28
plastics following the herd leave our club to the real fans who know the history and know the horrific legacy of Moyes and Van gaal anyone remember sexton mourinho is making us compete again 2nd in league highest since Ferguson support united and our manager
TonyV25
28
Very true at first half we had complete control of the game but we couldn't take our chances And in the second half Spurs were able to convert their chances and the defense error cost us the game If we had converted out chances Spurs would have been out of the game by first half
hamza_chounaki
24
Sam is just Bang - on hope all other JM haters should understand this. Manager tactics worked possession , shot on total attempts are shows the manager tactics poor finish is not in hands of manager. it's the player who supposed to be blamed at all. JM proved what he is capable of ...he can play attacking football ...but if the poor finish also the poor defending is there ...it must to park a bus.