Jose Mourinho has told his Manchester United players they must be “men” as they try to recover from their Chelsea humiliation.
United face local rivals City in the EFL Cup on Wednesday following their 4-0 hiding at Mourinho’s former club Chelsea on Sunday.
The tie will go to extra time and penalties if necessary and Mourinho has demanded an immediate response from his players, insisting there is no room for “kids” within his team, only “men” ready to show their worth.
“There is no way to hide, because I think our faces speak by themselves,” said Mourinho.
The best pictures from Man Utd's 4-0 defeat at Chelsea:
“We are really, really sad, but again this is not for kids, this is for men and we have to be men and work for the next one.
“I would prefer to play in the Premier League [rather than the EFL Cup]. It’s a bad feeling in the Premier League.
“With the combination of results the gap to the top is six points. We’ve had a very difficult period of matches.
“We lost points this week and even in the match when we played phenomenal against Stoke, we lost points then.
“Now we need to win matches. I’m not saying they are easy ones, but we have Burnley, we have Swansea, West Ham, Sunderland, Middlesbrough, matches that we need to win.
“The top four, the top five, they have to play between themselves like we did this week against Chelsea and Liverpool.”