Manchester United midfielder Ander Herrera has stated that himself and manager José Mourinho have a "fantastic relationship", despite the coach criticising Herrera's comments following last Saturday's 2-1 defeat to Huddersfield Town.

Want to forget what happened on Saturday

Herrera has certified himself as a fan favourite since his move to Old Trafford, this has been mainly down to his passion for the club and the United faithful but also his honesty on how he speaks about performances.

That came to light on Saturday after the disappointing defeat at the John Smiths Stadium with the Spaniard stating that The Terriers played with more passion, Mourinho eluded a similar attitude to the defeat in the post-match press conference but admitted that he couldn't explain the Spaniard's remarks.

Herrera played his part in United's bounce back next week with the 2-0 Carabao Cup conquest against Swansea City, and ahead of the crucial league clash with title rivals Tottenham Hotspur Herrera stated that there was no rift between himself and the coach.

"We have a fantastic relationship," Herrera insisted on the state of their relationship. "But what I said was that in the first 30 minutes they had a better attitude than us."

"That's what happened," the Spaniard admitted. "But after that we had a good attitude and we were even close to drawing the game, which is not so easy after playing bad the first 30 minutes."

"But now we want to forget what happened on Saturday," the 28-year-old proclaimed. "We want to move forward for a massive game against Tottenham and try to win."

"After the defeat at Huddersfield we needed good feelings back," Herrera added. "Because when you lose a game you want to play as quick as possible and play well.''

Going to need them more than ever

The first defeat of the season for United has left them already trailing early in the Premier League title race, with bitter rivals Manchester City currently leading the pack by five points after their comfortable 3-0 win over Burnley also on Saturday afternoon.

Despite returning to winning ways midweek away in Wales they will be facing another difficult prospect as Mauricio Pochettino's men come to the North West, one thing that United always have on their side is the cauldron that is Old Trafford and Herrera has stated that they will need the fans this weekend.

“Our fans have to realise that we need them," he told manutd.com. "We need them to beat those top teams, they always help us."

"Last season, we beat Spurs and the fans were supporting us all the way," the midfielder stated. "So we need it again."

"We want to finish fighting for every title," Herrera concluded. "And the only way we can do that is with everyone being together as a team, a club and fans, so we need them.”

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About the author
Danial  Kennedy
Award-winning sports journalism graduate. Currently studying a PR Masters at the University of Sunderland. Writing for VAVEL since August 2014. Twitter - @ddkjournalism.