What Ozil wrote about Mourinho in 2017 explains how the Man Utd boss is acting

The Red Devils manager produced a 12-minute rant during his press conference on Friday and ripped into his players following the victory over Brighton.

Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho can't seem to keep his name out of headlines at the moment - and what Mesut Ozil wrote about him in 2017 may explain why.

The Red Devils boss came out swinging in Friday's press converence following his side's Champions League defeat to Sevilla.

Mourinho burst into a 12-minute rant, pointing to United's lack of recent success as the reason behind their European failure this season.

And following the Red Devils' FA Cup quarter-final win over Brighton on Saturday, Mourinho once again gave a lengthy response when asked about his team, slamming his players over their performance.

Ozil played under Mourinho for three seasons at Real Madrid, winning a La Liga title and a Copa del Rey with the Portuguese.

And in his 2017 book 'Gunning for Greatness: My Life', Ozil explained why Mourinho sometimes acted the way he did in front of the media.

"Mourinho would already know in the evening if the two big Spanish daily sports papers were going to lay into the team the following morning," penned the German.

"He knew if Marca or AS were going to turn against us, which would have unsettled the team. So he would attempt a diversionary tactic.

"He didn’t care if the counter-attack ended up being at his own expense and his image suffered as a result of supposedly provocative comments.

"He was an interceptor, without whom the team would never have escaped unscathed, nor could we have gone about our work in peace."