Jose Mourinho slams Manchester United stars for ignoring 'basic law of football'

Jose Mourinho turned on his players after Manchester United were held by Wolves.

United’s three-game winning run came to an end as Joao Moutinho’s second half strike cancelled out Fred’s opener.

It prompted Mourinho to criticise the attitude of his players, claiming they deserved no more than a 1-1 draw after failing to learn the ‘basic law of football.’

Playing at Old Trafford for the first time since their 3-0 defeat to Tottenham, Mourinho said: “It as not a good performance, not a good result. A fair result, Wolves, by the way they faced the game deserved because they play like I like to play, which is like the World Cup final.

“That’s the attitude that I like my teams to have every match and we didn’t have that. They had, we didn’t. The attitude made the difference, they were in the game since the first minute, they play every ball, every second in the maximum of their intensity and desire, and we didn’t.

“We start poorly, we start both halves at a low intensity and is difficult to win matches when you are not there.”

Mourinho was fiercely defensive of his players after defeat to Spurs last month plunged their season into crisis.

But he made no attempt to protect them after yet more dropped points.

“I can’t explain a difference of attitude because I never have a difference of attitude,” he added. “For me it is difficult to explain that.

“This is something you learn as a kid in the academy, you don’t need experiences at the highest level to learn that, that’s a basic law of football.

"You have to play to the maximum of your potential, the maximum of your focus, unless you play in such a weak league against really weak opponents and then playing at 20 percent of your potential is enough to win.

“That’s not the case, we all know that. A poor start and then lucky to score the goal before them and then winning, we start the second half again at a low intensity and then we concede the goal and then we react.

“Obviously we reacted, but were not creative, sharp enough in the last third, of course we had a couple of chances to score and win the game, but not enough.”

Fred scored his first goal for United on 18 minutes after the home side had weathered an early storm from Wolves.

The Brazilian then hit the woodwork with a free kick just before half time.

But when Moutinho eight minutes into the second half, it was the least Wolves deserved.

Mourinho continued: “I expect my team to make a better game than we did. If we play against Wolves like we did against Tottenham, I think we win.

“It looks like a contradiction, but I am more disappointed today than I was against Tottenham.

“Obviously we lost the game, but I liked very, very much my team’s performance. And today, of course we had a better result, but I didn’t like my team.”