Premier League: Jose Mourinho refuses to criticize players after Brighton defeat

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho was quite upset at the end of his side's 3-2 defeat at Brighton on Sunday and he insisted that he doesn't want to criticize individual players because the media don't like that. The Red Devils had started the season with a 2-1 victory over Leicester, but the trip to Brighton ended in defeat due to several mistakes in defence. Glenn Murray and Shane Duffy scored to put Brighton two goals up before the half hour mark, then Romelu Lukaku got Man United back into the game with a header on 34 minutes but Paul Gross converted a penalty kick to make it 3-1 before the break. Man United were unable to react and they only managed to score in stoppage time when Paul Pogba converted a penalty kick. Mourinho was asked about the performance of his players after the match, and he replied: "When I speak about individual performances and when I'm critical with my players, you just don't accept it. The press and pundits are usually very critical of me when I go in that direction, so please don't ask me to go in this direction, because it's not good for me. So I will be very, very happy to analyse my players' performances when they are very good. It is a great thing for me to come in front of the camera and say player A, B, C was fantastic. It's amazing for me. When I cannot do that, don't push me to the other side, because I don't go to the other side." However, Mourinho did blame his players for the defeat: "We made too many mistakes, and you were punished by the mistakes, because sometimes players make mistakes and you're not immediately punished. We were always punished, and I think the third goal is too hard, and the team tried. The team in the second half tried, but I think the mental point of view, the accumulation of mistakes and punishment step by step was giving happiness and confidence to a good team like Brighton, who took that confidence from us. We are not speaking about small mistakes, we made big mistakes, and we were punished by them. Of course when you lose your confidence, you lose a bit of the game plan. Certainly, you make that mistake, concede the third goal, and get into a situation where the players were really, really down." Manchester United now are 25/1 at Bet365 to win the Premier League title this season.