It was deja vu at Old Trafford on Tuesday as once again Manchester United dominated possession, created chance after chance, hit the woodwork twice, yet were only able to grab a point with their league leading 1-1 draw against Everton saw them drop more Premier League points at Old Trafford.
Phil Jagielka gave Everton the lead midway through the first half but United’s pressure eventually paid off in added time when Zlatan Ibrahimovic converted a penalty.
United might he unbeaten in 20 Premier League matches, it has bene an unconvincing run, littered with dropped points and including ten draws. United have won just once at home in the league in 2017, with the likes of West Brom, Bournemouth and Hull each taking a point away from the Theatre of Dreams since the turn of the year.
And Mourinho was left frustrated, despite Ibrahimovic’s late penalty, with United languishing four points behind fourth-placed Manchester City with nine games to play.
Mourinho, speaking to BT Sport 1, said: “The performance was not very good.
“The spirit in the second half was phenomenal, but with some players really in trouble – some by the physical point of view, some others clearly with the confidence levels low.
“It was deja vu in many things, but I have to admit we played better football than in some other matches. We had a few chances. We hit the post as always. The opponent goalkeeper played very well as always.”
United was critical of United’s forwards in the draw at the weekend, but only Southampton, Sunderland and Middlesbrough have worse shot conversion rates than United. Unlike last year under LVG, United are creating shots and chances, only Spurs have managed more shots on goal than United this season. But they are missing golden opportunities to score every week:
“There are different stats and the stats are never the same but the last one we are the second team in the Premier League with most shots but we are the third worst in the relation between the shots and the number of goals we score,” Mourinho said.
“We need to score goals to win matches. I say there is not one match at home that does not have emotion because we try until the end but we don’t score enough goals.
“How many goals have [Marcus] Rashford, [Jesse] Lingard, [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan, [Paul] Pogba got? Paul has the record of [hitting] posts.
“How many goals from the attacking players? Not enough. There are some teams where three chances three goals three points.”
Mourinho said a top four finish was becoming a more remote possibility.
“More difficult, very difficult,” he told the BBC.
“It is mathematically possible but depends on our opponents. It is an amazing run of 20 matches unbeaten but too many draws at home. Because of that we are in the position we are.
“We build well but we don’t score enough goals, we don’t kill off enough opponents and at the end of this season I think we will be punished by that.”
