Mourinho's Main Role Is To Motivate

After Jose Mourinho criticised Manchester United players for lack of passion, Jonathan Liew insisted on the Sunday Supplement that it is his job to motivate his side.

Mourinho was left unhappy with Ander Herrera's remarks in a post-match interview that Huddersfield beat them because they had "more passion".

Herrera said in a post-match interview with MUTV: "They played with more passion than us in the first 30 minutes," and Mourinho later took aim at the Spanish midfielder, saying he thinks players should explain their attitude drop in post-match press conferences because he was perplexed by it.

But Liew, chief sports writer at the Independent, questioned Mourinho's main role as manager if it is not to motivate the players.

Liew said: "There's nothing really untoward about [Herrera's comments], but for Mourinho then to blame his players for not being motivated, what exactly is his job as a manager if it is not to motivate his players? It's kind of like a fireman blaming fire.

"The other thing to say is that all of this is a convenient distraction from one of the real issues of this United side, that they are not that good at chasing games.

"It's been almost a year since they won a Premier League game from a losing position. In that second half they were actually tactically quite short of ideas. I think the idea that they weren't up for it is a convenient smokescreen for what is an underlying issue."

Mourinho's United were beaten 2-1 at the John Smith's Stadium, with first-half goals from Aaron Mooy and Laurent Depoitre following mistakes by Juan Mata and substitute Victor Lindelof.

Sami Mokbel, football reporter at the Daily Mail, says Mourinho threw his players under the bus following the defeat, but insists this is nothing new for the Portuguese boss, and the tactic works more often than not.

"Was he right to apportion the blame to the players? Yes of course. He threw them under the bus, but we've seen Mourinho do that before numerous times.

"Yesterday's result is one that has been coming. At Liverpool they shut up shop, in Benfica they won the game but it was a ragged performance. And in Huddersfield in the wind and rain they buckled and succumbed.

"Yes you can question a player's attitude, question their motivation, but on the day sometimes you just don't play well, and I think that was certainly the case with United yesterday.

"It's him looking ahead to the next game and trying to get a reaction out of his players, he's done it time and time again, and more often than not it has worked for him.

"It didn't work for him at Chelsea in that last season, he continually threw his players under the bus in the hope of getting that reaction, and in the end they just gave up, rolled over and it didn't work for him.

"I don't think that'll happen with United this time, because they have too much to play for."

Credit: Skysports.com