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Mourinho: United showed lack of class, desire vs. Brighton

Alex Livesey / Getty Images Sport / Getty

Manchester United advanced into the final four of the FA Cup with a 2-0 win over Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday, but manager Jose Mourinho was none too pleased with his team's performance.

In the wake of the Red Devils' elimination from the Champions League, the Portuguese tactician explained that some of his players still showed a lack of desire, initiative, and courage against Brighton.

"Nope. I didn't like the game," Mourinho said, when asked for his thoughts on his team's showing. "I think we clearly deserved (to win), but we didn't play the way I want the players to play.

"I didn't have the reaction from all of them. I had a reaction from some of them, and because some of them were mentally strong enough and with football quality to play, was the reason we won.

"But a team of 11, when you don't have a minimum of six, seven players performing and wanting to play, want the responsibility to have the ball, want and desire really to play - because one thing is to play, another thing is to be on the (training) pitch - it's difficult to have a good performance. So I'm not happy with the performance at all, but I'm happy with the result."

Mourinho also pointed out that many of the lessons he had worked to implement in training ahead of this match - as a response to his team's Champions League failures - were ignored entirely.

"I spend two days working on fast building up and the ball arriving early between the lines and attacking areas, and that depends on qualities and decisions by the defenders in possession, but also depends on the movement from the attacking players," Mourinho offered.

"When I spend two days working on this and I (see) attacking players hiding behind players, not wanting the ball between the lines, defenders playing just square passes and taking 10, 12 passes for the ball to go from one line to another line, I have to feel frustrated.

"I think as a coach, the biggest frustration sometimes is not the result, because a bad result can happen. Sometimes the biggest frustration for me is when I work on the pitch and I see contradictions in the match."

In an effort to address those problems, Mourinho also outlined what he needs from his team in order to exceed expectations and excel once again.

"I want more personality in the team. Many, many times I felt that (Nemanja) Matic was an island, an island of personality, of desire, of control, surrounded not by water, but lack of personality, lack of class, lack of desire."

"I have to say that, for example, (Scott) McTominay lost more passes today than in all the matches he's played together, but he was a Manchester United player. For me, a Manchester United player is a player who, when he plays bad, he (still) gives to the team. That's the question of personality.

"The perfect Manchester United player is the one that has quality and personality and is consistent on that, but when you play bad, you must have that personality that the kid who is 20 years old had, and some of the others didn't have."

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