Former England U21 manager Stuart Pearce has suggested that Jose Mourinho should stop taking digs at young players in the media after Manchester United suffered a third defeat in space of nine days.

The Old Trafford side slipped to a 3-1 defeat against Watford at Vicarage Road on Sunday and the Portuguese manager singled out Luke Shaw in his post match conference for his error in Watford’s second goal.

Pearce, who has worked with young English players previously, believes such treatment destroys the confidence of the players and says Mourinho should handle such situations in a better way.

Mourinho should stop blaming young players for defeat

Mourinho has been honest with his assesment of every game the team has played this year. He was unhappy with the mentality of his players during the defeat to Manchester City and he made it evident after the game.

Pearce also admitted that “Mourinho looked at [Jesse] Lingard after the derby game and said it was too much for him.” Mourinho was critical of Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Lingard after the derby and labelled their performances as poor.

Shaw was blamed for the second goal that Watford scored and the defender was soon substituted afterwards. Pearce thinks that “Mourinho would be probably better off not having a pop at the youngsters.”

Mourinho was also vocal about his two centre defenders Eric Bailly and Daley Blind after the game against City, having adopted a hard-line stance towards his players.

Mourinho should follow the path of Koeman

The Englishman believes that Mourinho should have “probably pull Shaw aside, get him in front of a video and educate him on how to play the game” as opposed to his more public tactics.

He also further added that despite his recent behaviour towards young players, Mourinho is one of “the best in the world at educating and coaching the players.”

Pearce also admitted that Mourinho should learn from Everton manager Ronald Koeman as to how deal with such situations. He insisted that Shaw should be treated the way “Everton did with Ross Barkley this week" in that "they took him off last weekend and he goes and delivers a good performance this weekend."

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About the author
Kiran Thakare
Student of Chemical Engineering. United supporter.