Jose Mourinho stressed he was pleased with his team’s performance on Wearside tonight, but was left to rue missed chances as we exited the Capital One Cup.
The manager admitted he was frustrated to exit a competition that had given some of the lesser-used members of his squad some valuable playing time, particularly in the dramatic circumstances in which we lost tonight.
Despite the loss, Mourinho was keen to stress he has no desire to change the manner in which we play, even if it is not always getting us the desired results…
‘We want this team to play the way we are playing,’ Mourinho said.
‘We want this team to have evolution but based on the way we are playing at the moment we have to finish opponents and we need goals to do that.
‘Maybe the way to rectify it is to not concede goals and to have a different approach, to be more defensive, concede fewer goals and win matches with the few goals we score – but that’s not what I want.
‘We are going in one direction which is the right direction in terms of the quality of football we want to play, so it would be quite frustrating to change that, take a step back and go in another direction just because we want better results.’
Mourinho said he was sad to exit a competition that has been kind to him in the past…
‘It’s a competition that looks like it is not important – it’s cold, the stadium is not full, you play far from home. But, when you reach the final, you feel it as a nice competition you want to win.
‘The players got the message because their attitude and ambition was good and they tried to play. They knew that I would go to the end of the competition with the players that had played more, like Mark Schwarzer and Kevin De Bruyne, so it’s a pity that players like them can’t play in the semi-finals and the finals. I feel sorry for these guys.’