Where did it all go wrong?
Well, Jose Mourinho is in little doubt about the moment that Manchester United lost their grip on their Champions League clash with Basel on Wednesday night.
United succumbed to a 1-0 defeat at St. Jakob Park after a last-minute Michael Lang goal denied them their 100 per cent start to the group stage.
The Red Devils remain three points ahead of both Basel and CSKA Moscow on the top of Group A and will host the Russian outfit in their final group game in two weeks.
Not impressed at all… https://t.co/Pc6wS5pdM8
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) November 22, 2017
Immediately after the game on Wednesday evening, Mourinho was quick to identify the substitution of midfielder Paul Pogba as the moment which saw his team’s performance levels drop.
“The first half was a perfect half without the goals,” Mourinho said. “Was perfect, the first half was perfect, was difficult to repeat in the second half, we knew that the opponent would try a different reaction.
“Did Paul Pogba come out have an impact on the team? I think it had, we were not such a good team after Paul had to come out but he had to be, he cannot go to levels of fatigue after 65 minutes.
“But I brought to the pitch an experienced player like Matic that I thought could affect the game, I bring Marcus to give us more depth, more speed, more problems, Zlatan to hold the ball, to sit with the ball, to drop and have it. The approach was good, I cannot blame the players, I think we play a match like this 10 times and out of nine, we win comfortably. The one was now.
“I came here a few years ago with Chelsea and lost 1-0 also in the last minute but we had one shot on target, we played really bad, today was not the case, in the first-half, we were really really good.”
United return to Premier League action on Saturday, when they welcome Brighton to Old Trafford.
