José Mourinho has admitted it will be unacceptable if Manchester United fail to beat Newcastle United on Saturday and so go five matches without a victory, a run that has occurred only once since 1999.
United’s last win was 3-0 over Young Boys in the Champions League in mid-September, since when Mourinho’s side have drawn two games and lost two, albeit one on penalties.
United last went five matches without a victory in November and December of the 2015-16 season under Louis van Gaal. Mourinho, asked whether matching this sequence on Saturday would be not good enough at a club of United’s stature, said: “Yes, I accept.”
If United fail to defeat Newcastle this would also mean five games at home without victory, which has not occurred since November-February of the 1989-90 campaign.
Mourinho said he could not give the reasons for the uneven form but that improving the home record was vital. “Very important,” he said. “I know we are in the beginning of October and we look to tables all around Europe and in many of the leagues the tables in September, October don’t reflect what is going to happen in a few months later or even in the end of the season.
“But we are in a position that we can do much better and to do that we need points; points that we lost especially in the last two Premier League matches with one point out of six.”
Mourinho praised Rafael Benítez, the Newcastle manager. “We know that to improve that position we need to win these three points. But we know that our opposition also need the points, a very good coach, a team that is always very well organised against especially the teams of the first part of the table where their manager is very bright on his analysis of the opposition qualities and to try to stop them.
“The results they had against the top teams didn’t get them points yet this season but gave them very close results and very difficult matches for the opposition. So we expect a difficult match.”
Asked why United were misfiring, Mourinho said: “For many different reasons.” – Guardian service
