José Mourinho Sympathises With Ole Gunnar Solskjaer - But Not Man Utd - After 6-1 Win

It was a memorable return to Old Trafford for José Mourinho on Sunday as he led his Tottenham Hotspur side to a historic 6-1 win over Manchester United.

After falling behind to an early Bruno Fernandes penalty, Spurs roared back in phenomenal fashion, with goals from Harry Kane, Son Heung-min, Tanguy Ndombele and Serge Aurier firing Mourinho's men to all three points.

Here's what the boss had to say about it all.

Sympathy for Solskjaer

"I have sympathy for Ole because of the result," he said (via Goal). "I don't remember that I lost by six but I lost by five, I lost by four. I know how we hurt.

"I know it's very, very important that the winning manager behaves in a way where he shows sympathy. Of course, I want to win, and of course, I want to win by seven, not by six. Don't get me wrong.

"But it's sympathy in our behaviour. Today was him, tomorrow is me. Of course, I feel sympathy for him. I can imagine that tonight he's not going to sleep very, very well. But this is the hard life of us."

No Sympathy for United

The United squad were left incensed after Érik Lamela escaped punishment in the altercation that saw Anthony Martial given his marching orders, but Mourinho insisted United cannot really talk about VAR controversy.

"I didn't watch it. Maybe later I will. If someone can cry about the VAR decisions it is Tottenham and if someone cannot cry about VAR it is Manchester United for sure," he told Sky Sports (via Goal).

He added: "For sure, for sure, for sure, Manchester United could have ended the match with eight players. I can say because some of the reactions were not far from me and easy to see. But I agree with [referee] Anthony Taylor for not showing more red cards to them because it would be a disastrous situation for them.

"So, for example, that Luke Shaw red card...okay, that's a bit...the situation between Lamela, Pogba and Martial, I don't know. I don't know. What I know is that before that we were winning, we were dominating, we were ultra-confident. And that's the only thing that made the game easier. But the game was in our hands."

On a Fantastic Performance

"Manchester United doesn't lose many matches, [and] to lose by six is of course not every day," he added. "[It's a] historical victory but in the end [it's] three points and three very important points because we lost five points at home.

"We prepared ourselves very well tactically and also psychologically, the team was ready. So ready that a penalty in the first minute and going 1-0 down did not affect the team at all.

"Some people can say you play against ten men for a long time which is true but for me it is also true that 11 v 11 we were playing extremely well, we were creating huge problems, we were winning 2-1 and they could not find solutions to control us."

On Criticism of His Defensive Tactics

"Imagine if they have an attacking coach!" he joked to beIN Sports. "With a defensive coach, they scored five, seven, six. With an attacking coach they will score ten, eleven, twelve. 

"The mentality is great. The players are playing very, very well. Everyone is giving everything. The squad is full of quality and talent."

Can Spurs Win a Trophy This Season?

“I don’t know if we can win a trophy or not, I know we’re working very hard and well, for a long time, since we arrived.," Mourinho added (via football.london). "This season obviously Mr Levy and the structure of the club gave us a much-improved squad and what I told you in the first press conference of the season is that our objective is to win every match.

“Of course we’re not going to, we’re going to lose, like we lost against Everton and draw like we did against Newcastle. But the target, objective is every match we go to win.

“I told the players in the last couple of days 1,000 times a good result at Old Trafford is to win. Of course, if you draw it’s not a bad result but that’s the kind of mentality we must get. It was a great performance, a great result. We have seven points, so our position in the table is so-so.”

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