Mourinho calls for ´unlucky´ Man United to respond

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho believes bad luck is behind his team’s recent Premier League struggles.

A 0-0 result at home to Southampton on Saturday marked United’s third consecutive Premier League draw.

Mourinho’s men have slipped to third in the table, a point behind Chelsea and 15 adrift of runaway league leaders Manchester City.

The Portuguese tactician feels his team have lacked luck in recent matches, lamenting injuries and decisions not going his side’s way.

“I feel unlucky, but when unlucky in football, you have to chase, which is what we try to do,” Mourinho said.

“When I speak about three big decisions, three penalties in matches where a penalty and a possible goal makes a huge difference, I want to say unlucky because it’s what I feel.

“I could be here now with a bias theory but I’m not at all because honestly I’m happy with the referees’ performances in these matches. These were just unlucky decisions.

“You have to be biased against us to say that the penalty against City, against Leicester and [against Southampton] were not penalties.”

Adding to United’s injury woes, strikers Romelu Lukaku and Zlatan Ibrahimovic are set to miss matches, with the latter ruled out for a month.

The boss has revealed that @Ibra_official will be out of action for #MUFC for one month. pic.twitter.com/qrb60A3tU4

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) December 30, 2017

Mourinho said it was tough to manage his squad through the busy festive period due to the injuries.

“The boys are trying, but we have lots of problems in the team and we lost Lukaku and Ibrahimovic for a month,” he said.

“That means Ibra stops his run to recovery, his running for many, many months in a period when he needs to play and to have minutes, but now we lose him for a month and then we lose Lukaku, but I don’t know for how long.

“Marouane Fellaini, I don’t remember the last time he played. It was a long time ago that I don’t even remember – it was a match at home against Brighton? I don’t remember, but it is a long, long time ago.

“Michael Carrick, it was in pre-season and I don’t remember him playing during the season so we have problems. We have difficulty to rotate players.”