Jose 'Shouldn't Blame Youngsters'

Jose Mourinho should avoid "having a pop" at Manchester United's young players as results falter, Stuart Pearce has told Sky Sports News HQ.

Sunday's 3-1 defeat at Watford followed poor results against Manchester City and Feyenoord and marked the first time since 2002 a Mourinho side has lost three successive games.

United's new manager afterwards identified "three factors" for the run of results and singled out Luke Shaw's failure to press Daryl Janmaat as the reason for Watford's second goal on Sunday.

That public criticism followed on from a similar rebuke of his players after the Manchester derby, when he took off Jesse Lingard and Henrikh Mkhitaryan at half-time and later talked about "some really poor individual performances".

Pearce, who worked extensively with young players as England U21 boss, said on Monday's Sky Sports Now programme: "He looked at Lingard after the derby game and said it was too much for him. He blamed Luke Shaw for the second goal [against Watford]. You think he's probably better off not having a pop at the youngsters.

"What he needs to do is probably pull [Shaw] aside, get him in front of a video and educate him on how to play the game. It's difficult for me to tell Mourinho how to coach and educate - he's the best in the world at it."

Pearce pointed to Ronald Koeman's treatment of Ross Barkley at Everton as an example of how to educate young players.

Koeman was critical of the England midfielder's performance at Sunderland earlier this month, but praised his reaction against Middlesbrough on Sunday after a week spent watching clips with his manager.

"Really it's a case of pulling [Shaw] aside - like Everton did with Ross Barkley this week," Pearce said. "They took him off last weekend and he goes and delivers a good performance this weekend."

Credit: Skysports.com