- Mourinho has come to the strong defence of his players after defeat at Anfield
- The Portuguese gaffer played down rumours Man United players were disloyal
- The ex-Chelsea boss hailed their spirited performance despite the loss
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has insisted he has the full-backing of his players, claiming they were not dishonest with their efforts at Anfield.
United were condemned to their fifth defeat of the season following a 3-1 loss to their Premier League rivals.
Mourinho had a couple of key players on the bench including Paul Pogba and Anthony Martial and there were no attempts to bring them on after Jesse Lingard drew them level.
READ ALSO: Don't sack Mourinho - Liverpool fans beg Manchester United chiefs
But when asked if he had the full support of his players, frustrated Mourinho claimed the question suggested that members of his squad were dishonest.
"Are you calling the players dishonest?" Mourinho told Sky Sports .
"I believe they are honest, and you believe they are dishonest.
"A football player has to give their all every day, their maximum every day, it doesn't matter who the manager is.
"The club that pays him, the fans that are for 24 hours every day in love with the club, they need to respect that.
"If the players don't do the maximum, then you call them dishonest. I do not call the players dishonest."
Jurgen Klopp's side took the lead courtesy of of Sadio Mane in the 24th minute, but a mistake Alisson enabled Jesse Lingard to restore parity.
Xherdan Shaqiri's brace completely turned the match around, but Mourinho laughed off the suggestion that United had been fortunate to be in the game up until that point.
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"If you want to speak about fortunate, talk about Liverpool's second and third goals," Mourinho said.
"Our goal was [Romelu] Lukaku getting behind and playing a good cross and then Lingard arriving in a good position.
"The goalkeeper made what I used to call half of a mistake. To speak about deflected goals, we have to speak about the second and the third [for Liverpool].
"They are a strong team, they showed they have the strongest team, but it's hard to concede the two goals we did in this moment, even harder the way the goals happened.
"Our difficulty in the game was the first 20 minutes, we couldn't cope with their fantastic speed, intensity and pressing. After that we were quite comfortable in the game, it was controlled."
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Meanwhile, Legit.ng had earlier reported that a senior member Manchester United squad has revealed that 90 per cent of the players are against Portuguese gaffer Jose Mourinho, Mirror quoting The Sun.
Ahead of the crunch tie with Liverpool at Anfield, Mourinho will be taken his injury-plagued side to their old rivals.
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