Mourinho Calls For Killer Instinct

Jose Mourinho says his Manchester United players have to work on killing teams off after the Reds were held once again this season at Old Trafford.

The 0-0 stalemate with West Brom was the eighth draw in 15 Premier League home games this term, even if the unbeaten run in the league has stretched to 19 matches.

The United manager spoke of his frustration at his team's lack of a killer instinct in front of goal, insisting an inability to be consistent in the scoring stakes is continuing to prove costly.

"I think in football, especially in teams that want to win things, you need consistency in the individuals," he said. "In some other clubs and some teams where you play for a top-10 place, a player with talent is always welcome even if it that talent is not consistent and that talent is one day yes, one day no. In teams at this level you need to be consistent.

"We need to kill opponents off and this is déjà vu all season. When you score a goal against these teams, you don’t win 1-0, you win 3-0 or 4-0 because, when you score, the game is open and you have a completely different story because then they have to play a different way.

"We are not consistent with this, we miss easy chances, we have moments or periods where we push but then a couple of players disappear and there is 10 minutes when you don’t see them. You see always the same people, always the same guys in front of the train, pulling the train. So it’s disappointing, yes, because it’s one more draw. It’s an amazing unbeaten run though - 19 matches in the modern-day Premier League, it’s fantastic, but we've had too many draws at home. Some draws away from home are very acceptable or positive and we can deal with it, but too many draws at home."

Asked whether he thinks his players find it easier to play away home, Mourinho declared: "I still think playing away from home is more difficult to have total control of the game because opponents at home play a different way. Their supporters push them for a different kind of football and I still feel that away from home is difficult.

"If you ask me if I prefer to play West Brom at home or prefer to go to their stadium, I prefer to play here, no doubt about it. But we need to kill opponents. You see the number of goals we score in relation to our production and dominance and it’s a big contradiction.

"The number of goals we score at home probably if someone who doesn’t know looks at them they may think we are a defensive team, we are a counter-attacking team waiting for a mistake, that we don’t push, we don’t control things and we don’t have a mission and that’s completely the opposite.

"But you see how many goals our guys score – [Marcus] Rashford, [Jesse] Lingard, [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan, [Anthony] Martial – you see how many goals they score and then Zlatan [Ibrahimovic] and [Juan] Mata are the ones with more goals. Zlatan, for sure, and I think Mata will come after him. If they are not [playing], then the situation gets even more difficult."