Manchester United were beaten by their bitter rivals, Manchester City 2-1 at Old Trafford on Saturday. At half-time, United were completely outplayed by their opponents as Pep Guardiola gave a taste of his style of football which is going to enthral supporters in his tenure.
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It is now being rumoured that the United players had a big row at half-time as they went two goals down to their rivals and were not even a contest for City until a Claudio Bravo error gave Zlatan Ibrahimovic an open goal to make United come back into the game.
It is being said that the players openly argued with one another in the dressing room and Jose Mourinho let them clear the air between themselves. He then made two changes at half time replacing Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Jesse Lingard with Marcus Rashford and Ander Herrera.
These changes at least helped United keep a hold of the proceedings in the second half but could not avoid a defeat at the hands of Guardiola's City.
On this incident, a United source has said, “The hairdryer came out for the first time this season, but it had nothing to do with Jose.The players could be heard shouting and arguing amongst themselves during the interval. Jose decided to let them blow off steam for a couple of minutes.”
“He then quietened the whole situation down and told them they also needed to calm down or the second half could be much worse. Goodness knows what it would have been like if Zlatan wasn’t handed that gift. "
Jose Mourinho was rightly disappointed after the game as he must be thankful to Claudio Bravo for making that howler which enabled United to come back into the game to some extent.
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He said, "It's my fault because I'm the manager and it's always my fault because it's my choice. I think in the first half they were much better than us. We started the game bad, with some players really below their normal level in terms of their concentration. The second half was completely different. "
Jose Mourinho has confirmed that wholesome changes are expected in their Europa League opener against Feyenoord on Thursday. Marcus Rashford is said to start as the striker with Zlatan Ibrahimovic receiving a much-deserved rest. Henrikh Mkhitaryan too is said to start from the bench after disappointing against Man City.
