According to Liverpool Echo, Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has aimed a sly dig at Liverpool by claiming that his side are better than any team other than Manchester City.
Mourinho has been criticised for his team’s style of play this season despite having a set of talented attackers at his disposal. Despite setting themselves up defensively on a number of occasions this season, United have held on to second place in the Premier League.
The Red Devils had briefly lost the second place on Saturday after Liverpool’s 2-1 win at Crystal Palace but regained it following their 2-0 victory over Swansea City at Old Trafford.
However, the Portuguese tactician has seen his United side get eliminated from the Champions League round of 16 at the hands of Sevilla, while Manchester City’s status as Premier League champions will be confirmed if they beat us at the Etihad Stadium next weekend.
Mourinho chose to ignore the fact that City could become champions next weekend with a victory, and opted to speak about the second-place, thereby attempting digs at Liverpool, Tottenham, Chelsea and Arsenal.
The United boss believes that his side have been unfairly criticised on a number of occasions this term and claims that we are better than all teams except City.
“Next week? I’m not thinking yet about it,” Mourinho said after the Swansea game, as quoted by the Liverpool Echo.
“Manchester City is not important for me. What is important for me is that since the moment we left first position and went to second, we stayed there for the whole of the season.
“We deserved to be second, in spite of what you can say, the criticisms you make. You all say the third, fourth, fifth, sixth (placed teams) are better than us, but they’re not, because we have more points than them.
“We’re going to fight every match. Seven to go – we’re going to fight to try to finish second.
“We played very well, moved the ball well, we pressed them high, they were always far from our goal. We played very well.
“I think we have 10 more points than last season, something like that (it’s eight).
“We have more goals scored, less goals conceded, we finished sixth last season, so we’re going to try to finish second, so the season is not as bad as you try to make it out to be.”
It is true that Jose’s United have been unfairly criticised a number of times this season. Criticism has been constant but what matters is that we have been second-best in the league all season and let’s hope we finish the season placed 2nd.