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After two straight losses there isn’t panic city yet at Man U according the Guardians Jamie Jackson.

“Manchester United are continuing to back José Mourinho despite the 3-0 defeat by Tottenham, with the board encouraged by the side’s first-half display against Mauricio Pochettino’s team in particular.

United suffered a second consecutive reverse with Monday’s defeat at Old Trafford. However, Mourinho’s team were bright before the interval as the manager sent out a new 3-3-3-1 shape that had Ander Herrera in a fresh role as the right-sided centre-back.

Although the game remained goalless at half-time, United had created several chances, with Romelu Lukaku missing one clear opportunity to score.

Following the dismal capitulation at Brighton in the previous game the response engendered by Mourinho impressed the club’s hierarchy, it is understood, and there is no move even to consider his future as manager.

He takes his team to Burnley on Sunday before the international break and, unless there is a defeat of an alarming nature, Mourinho is unlikely to be sacked before the visit of Watford on 15 September.

Paul Pogba said he was baffled by the outcome against Tottenham. “It’s bizarre,” he said. “We were determined, we started well and in the end we lost 3-0. It’s a shock. We have to keep going, we must not worry. We must work. We are still Manchester United and we won’t give up on anything.”

The midfielder, used in a new position on the right of midfield in the manager’s formation, described it as an “undeserved defeat” and added: “Even we don’t understand what happened. We started the game really well, we conceded two goals [in quick succession] in the second half. The first goal was a real blow; we didn’t understand why, because we had the game in hand.”

Luke Shaw was one of United’s best performers and was congratulated by Mourinho at the final whistle but he described it as a “sad night”. He told MUTV: “We need to win and win in a good way because we played really well in the first half and, if we keep playing like that, and take our chances, then we will win games.”

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/aug/28/manchester-united-back-jose-mourinho-tottenham

Could this be a start to long hard assed season for Man U?

The Guardians Jacob Steinberg wrote:” José Mourinho said he could not give an honest assessment of his team’s performance after Manchester United slumped to a shambolic 3-2 defeat against Brighton & Hove Albion at the Amex Stadium. United’s manager refused to share any thoughts about his players, claiming he has been criticised by the media for speaking too openly in the past about individuals who have displeased him.

“When I am critical with my players you just don’t accept it, so please do not ask me to go in this direction because it is not good for me,” Mourinho said.

“I will be very happy to analyse my players’ performances when they were very good. When I cannot do that, don’t push me to the other side because I will not go to the other side.

“If I was in your position, I think this game today would give me quite a lot of material to write about. But don’t expect me to speak with you about it because you and your colleagues were really critical of me when in previous seasons I was probably too honest and too open in my analysing and I was too honest and too open in analysing about players’ performances.

“So don’t ask me to do what you criticised me so much for. Expect from me to be really happy to say after Leicester, A, B, C, D an amazing performance, this and that. Don’t expect me to go in the other direction.”

Paul Pogba admitted United failed to match Brighton’s desire.

“They had more hunger than us. I put myself first, that my attitude wasn’t right enough. We made mistakes we shouldn’t make. We tried to push and push, we kept trying, but it was a bit too late.

“We were playing at home last week and that’s different. Different teams, different tactics. I know you cannot always play very, very good. The attitude always has to be very good and we missed that.”

United contributed to their own downfall, making mistakes that allowed Glenn Murray, Shane Duffy and Pascal Gross from the penalty spot to give Brighton a 3-1 lead at half-time. Brighton’s manager, Chris Hughton, felt his side deserved their first win of the season.

“I am very proud with the performance,” Hughton said. “I thought both sides of our game were really good. The tempo was very good. We never allowed them to get into the type of game they would like.”

Before this game Mourinho accused Manchester City of a lack of class after learning that a documentary about the Premier League champions featured digs at his expense. However, Pep Guardiola refused to get drawn into a war of words after his side’s 6-1 win against Huddersfield Town at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

“That is true, you cannot buy class,” City’s manager said. “I agree with him, with José, you cannot buy class. I think we lived an amazing season last season, there were cameras. We did it for ourselves.

“I don’t agree with José in terms of being disrespectful to them. This was not our intention, just to film what happened last season.

“But I think we are a club that is trying to grow, to try to win titles, like all the big clubs in the world, and we did it for ourselves, for the fans, to see what happened in our locker room. But from the beginning the players, everybody in the club, said we are doing it.

“Of course the opponents are there but it’s his opinion, it’s José’s opinion. Another guy is going to say ‘we like it,’ another guy will say no. It’s simple like that. But I agree with him, class you cannot buy.”

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/aug/19/jose-mourinho-manchester-united-brighton-failings