Mourinho reveals criteria he will use to select team to face Tottenham in FA Cup

Jose Mourinho has thrown down the gauntlet on his stars. He has definitely had enough of poor performances.

A 1-0 loss at home to bottom side West Bromwich Albion on Sunday compounded ‘The Special One’ to his sixth defeat of the season in the league, allowing rivals Manchester City to clinch the title with five games left to play.

In his post-match press conference, Mourinho blasted his players for being ‘complicated’, saying that some were still ‘in the moon’ after defeating Man City at the Etihad the previous week.

“We were masters in complicated football. Everything was complicated. We couldn’t play fast, we couldn’t think fast. Everything was complicated. One more touch, one more touch to control the ball. One more turn, one more flick, one more trick. And we always gave them the opportunity to be solid, compact, together, in their low block with huge, physical, strong players,” said Mourinho.

Mourinho also blamed the loss on the players’ attitude and personality, saying some never exhibited high-level personality needed in a Premier League match. When asked whether he thought he was getting enough out of the experienced and aging players, Mourinho quickly stated that their performance had nothing to do with age and that they had to be consistent at every level.

Now, the ‘Special One’ is looking forward to the FA Cup clash against Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham.

After the West Brom match, the manager responded to a number of questions, one which was how he will select the team to face Spurs following inconsistent results. The manager had one answer, “I only know one criteria, it’s the way you play. It’s the only way I can select players. Or do you want me to go for the price they cost, or their salary, or their beautiful faces? The only way is to go with performance.”

Man United face Burnley on Wednesday at the Vitality Stadium and the manager will use the match to gauge who’s fit enough to play against Spurs.

Mourinho challenged his players to be ‘phenomenal’ in the next match if they want to make the squad for the FA Cup clash. He told journalists that ‘rotating’ is not the right word to use on how he’ll approach the Bournemouth clash and said his squad against Mauricio Pochettino’s side will depend on how players perform tomorrow.

“If a player is phenomenal against Bournemouth, he plays the semifinal,” said the manager.

This means that Mourinho will choose his most in-form players to play Spurs and judging by how the Red Devils performed against West Brom, a number will be on the bench.