LONDON - For a man who has just beaten old club Chelsea and is in sight of the Europa League semi-finals, Jose Mourinho did not seem entirely happy on Wednesday.
The Manchester United manager is still irked by his team’s failure to kill off their tie against Anderlecht when they drew 1-1 in Brussels last week.
Mourinho took aim at his forwards after that game and was again critical of two of them before tonight’s return leg.
Anthony Martial came off the bench in Belgium but has started only one of United’s past eight games. He was not even in the squad for the win over Chelsea.
Mourinho remains frustrated by Martial’s attitude and said: ‘Do I think Anthony is a player with great potential? Yes. Do I think he can play successfully for me? Yes, but he needs to give me things that I like.
‘We have been together for almost 10 months. The same way I know the players much better now, the players should also know me much better now.
‘That’s why Marcus Rashford is always a player I trust and I play and support because he was always coming in my direction.’
Mourinho also had a dig at Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who scored his fourth Europa League goal last week but was an unused substitute against Chelsea.
Asked twice if he is happy with Mkhitaryan, Mourinho gave the same pointed answer. ‘In the Europa League, yes.’
United are favourites but Mourinho said: ‘If we won 3-0 in Anderlecht, this would be a nice game but we didn’t kill it. If they don’t score a goal, they are out. That has to affect their thinking.’