Mourinho slams 'childish' United

Jose Mourinho slammed his Manchester United stars after they conceded a late equalizer in a 2-2 draw against 10-man Leicester that left the Red Devils 13 points adrift of leader Manchester City.

United was already trailing in City's wake, but Harry Maguire's 94th-minute leveler at King Power Stadium on Saturday was another hammer blow to its title hopes just hours after its rival had beaten Bournemouth.

At 2-1, Mourinho's side missed several superb chances to kill off the Foxes, and the United boss was furious with his players' finishing and the sloppy defending for Maguire's goal.

"It is as bad as a defeat," said Mourinho. "Sometimes you take a point and you say 'OK' and you accept it as it was hard to get a positive result.

"That is not the case (today). It is a game to win easily. It is a big frustration as they are easy goals to score and easy goals to kill the game but not just the goals we missed, also some easy way out to counter-attack where we lost the ball easily.

"On top of that, in the last couple of minutes, we allow the opposition to throw a few balls into the box, with (Leicester defender) Christian Fuchs' hands and crosses.

"We couldn't defend the last cross so I think we were punished by our mistakes in both penalty areas.

"There was a lack of maturity. I cannot stop the game and give a team talk."

A seething Mourinho continued: "For the last two minutes of the game the players had to immediately adapt, had to read the game, which they didn't so we had childish decisions in front of goal and bad decisions as it was not just about the goals we missed, or dribbling or hitting the post.

"It was not just about missing chances, it was also about decisions. Easy decisions to make in easy transitions to counter-attack."

Mourinho said he does not know whether all of his players will develop the maturity he demands.

"Some players they have childish decisions and time helps them to have maturity and to decide better but some other players stay with childish decisions until the end of their career," he said.

"You know it depends on what is inside and the way they learn or they don't learn."

Agence France-presse