Jose Mourinho today clarified his "Einstein" comments in the wake of Manchester United's 3-1 victory over Northampton on Wednesday night and lamented the face that he could not protect his team from outside criticism.
Speaking ahead of United's clash with champions Leicester City on Saturday [KO 12.30pm BST], Mourinho also claimed he had no problem "feeding the Einsteins", who he says "can’t coach, they can’t sit on the bench, they can’t win matches".
"I am [not] upset with anything," he told reporters on Friday. "I am such a lucky guy that I cannot be upset with anything. I am upset with nothing. The only thing that upsets me a little bit is the kind of criticism to my players because my players are my players.
"I should protect them, I would love to protect them, and from you [media] I can’t. It is something that is completely out of my control. That doesn’t upset me, just gives me a feeling that it’s hard. It’s like when you want to protect people and you can’t. I think it’s a feeling of frustration, but with me it’s fine and with the Einsteins it’s fine.
"The Einsteins need money to live, they can’t coach, they can’t sit on the bench, they can’t win matches. They can speak, they can write, they can criticise the work of other people, but I am a good man. I am good man of goodwill. I do lots of charity, I help so many people, so why not also feed the Einsteins? That’s fine."
One of the players who has come in for some public criticism is United skipper Wayne Rooney and Mourinho says that his performances has been reflective as United as a whole this past week.
"Wayne Rooney's form is like Man United's form. We are a team, we are not Wayne Rooney. We all started well, we all won four matches and we all lost three matches in a week. So that's no Wayne Rooney and to be honest, he did not play against Feyenoord so he was only directly involved in two of these three matches.
"The way we think in the group is that everybody is involved in every match, even the ones who are not playing. We like to say really good start to the season, probably better than we could have expected. Probably better than we were prepared for.
"We were guilty to raise the expectations of the people and then we lost three games in a week. Three matches where we were not consistent."
Of Saturday's game, he was asked whether or not Leicester would find it difficult to retain their crown.
"It is obviously very difficult to retain the title, not for Leicester, for everyone, history says that. Not many teams during the Premier League history they could do that.
"One of the teams was, of course, Man United, another one was some team managed from the worst manager in the history of football, but it’s really difficult.
"But the reality is I look at them and they are very good, they are very good. They won the Premier League because some of the big teams were not good enough last season, but they won because they were very good and they are still very good.
"I think they are a very easy team to analyse, a very easy team to understand. Their defensive process is clear, their attacking organisation is very easy to understand, too, but it is very difficult to cope with it. It is very difficult to keep a clean sheet against a team like Leicester and it is difficult to score goals against a team like Leicester. I keep repeating, easy to understand but difficult to play against."
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