Jose Mourinho hits out at Manchester United players for lack of 'personality, class and desire' in Brighton win

Jose Mourinho accused his Manchester United players of lacking “personality, class and desire” despite watching his side respond to their elimination from the Champions League by securing a place in this year’s FA Cup semi finals on Saturday night.

A day after his impassioned 12-minute monologue defending his record at Old Trafford and bemoaning his club’s lack of “football heritage”, Mourinho once again had strong words for his squad after they overcame Brighton and Hove Albion.

Goals from Romelu Lukaku and Nemanja Matic, the two “high level” performers Mourinho praised in his rant on Friday, secured a trip to Wembley for United next month but their manager was not pleased with what he saw from the majority of their team-mates.

Youngster Scott McTominay was singled out for criticism in particular but Mourinho also praised the 20-year-old’s character and bravery, despite putting in his “worst match” since becoming an established member of United’s first-team.

Mourinho was less sympathetic to Luke Shaw, who was substituted at half time after failing to play offensively enough for his manager.

“I want more personality in the team because many times I felt Matic was an island of personality, desire and control surrounded by not water but lack of personality, lack of class, lack of desire,” Mourinho told BT Sport. “I have to say that.”

In his post-match press conference, Mourinho expanded on his criticism of United’s performance, concentrating on McTominay’s display in particular.

“Scott played the worst match since he played with me in the first team but he is a Manchester United player for sure,” the United manager said.

“He is the player that made mistakes, passed the ball so bad tonight, lost so many passes but big personality to cope with the mistakes, big personality to say: 'I am not playing well but at least I am going to do the basic things of the game - keep position, recover balls, don't make basic mistakes.'

“A few other guys I saw them scared to play. I cannot say much more. It is a relation with personality, is a relation to trust, is a relation to class.

Mourinho added: “When the sun is shining and everything goes well, you win matches, you score goals, everything goes in your direction, every player is a good player and wants to play and wants the ball and looks amazing.

“When it is dark and cold, and in football that means a period of bad results or a bad result like happened to us a couple of days ago, not everybody has the confidence and personality to play really.

“To be on the pitch and touch the ball every five minutes, everyone can do it, but to be on the pitch and say: 'Give me the ball because I want to play', that's a bit more difficult. Not all of them were able to do it.”