Jose Mourinho proud of Manchester United players despite FA Cup final defeat

Posted Sunday, May 20, 2018 by Skysports.com

Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho praised the performance of his team, despite seeing them lose the FA Cup final 1-0 to Chelsea.

Eden Hazard's penalty was the only goal of the game at Wembley, meaning United were unable to add any silverware to their second-place finish in the Premier League this season.

However, despite the disappointment, Mourinho applauded the efforts of his players.

"My opinion on the performance is that every defeat hurts but for me personally the ones that hurt less is when you give everything and you go without any regrets," said Mourinho.

"So I prefer to lose like today than to lose like we did, for example at Newcastle. I leave my players happy with them, very happy with them. For me that's really important."

Jose Mourinho proud of Manchester United players despite FA Cup final defeat
Mourinho consoles Alexis Sanchez after the final whistle

United's top-scorer Romelu Lukaku has missed the past three weeks with an ankle injury and was only fit enough to begin the game from the bench, before making a late cameo.

However, Mourinho said the Belgian had told him he was not ready to start and says the lack of a target man - with Marcus Rashford playing up front - hurt his team's chances.

"It was not my decision, it was his decision [not to start]," said Mourinho. "When a player tells you he isn't ready to play, when he tells you that he is not ready to start the game, the question is 'how many minutes do you think you can?'.

"I knew the opponent I was going to play against. I knew they have a compact low block with lots of physicality where they try to close everything. I knew without a target man it would be difficult for us."

Jose Mourinho proud of Manchester United players despite FA Cup final defeat
Eden Hazard scores Chelsea's winner from the penalty spot

Mourinho also revealed he was expecting his side to keep a clean sheet against Chelsea, and believes his players were in control of the contest - aside from Hazard's first-half penalty, which was given after the Blues ace was brought down by United defender Phil Jones.

"Our team did a fantastic defensive job without defending," said Mourinho. "We controlled the positions really well, we controlled the transitions really well.

Jose Mourinho proud of Manchester United players despite FA Cup final defeat
Mourinho also had consoling words for Ashley Young

"They only played long balls to (Olivier) Giroud to flick and then Hazard to get second balls in individual actions. So when you play against a team so predictable it is quite easy to adapt to it.

"I thought we wouldn't concede any goal in this match, but of course Hazard is a very good player and he created the penalty."