Jose Mourinho accuses Manchester United players of lacking 'heart' after Crystal Palace draw

United’s worst start to a season in 28 years continued with another insipid performance

Jose Mourinho accused his Manchester United players of lacking 'heart' (Getty)

Jose Mourinho has accused some of his Manchester United players of lacking “heart” after their goalless stalemate with Crystal Palace at Old Trafford.

United’s worst start to a season in 28 years continued with another insipid performance, while Roy Hodgson’s side could easily have taken all three points.

Patrick van Aanholt and Andros Townsend both spurned golden chances to end Palace’s eight-game winless streak.

In his post-match press conference, Mourinho claimed that certain members of his squad did not offer the bare minimum expected of them.

“There are games that are special games and not just ‘one more’,” he said.

“This was a special game, the first of eight Premier League games until the end of December, a game we need to win and it was not enough from the heart.

“You must play with brain and also with heart and I think not enough heart.”

Mourinho claimed that while some of his players would return home, take the disappointment of failing to win hard and “have a bad dinner”, others will not.

“I am what I am and every individual is a different individual,” he said.

“There are people that will have a bad dinner, there are people who will enjoy a nice dinner and there will even be people that maybe will party.”

When it was put to Mourinho that playing with heart is the least his players can do, he said: “I agree. What’s the solution? You cannot change players’ natures dramatically.

“The solution is that probably I have to make certain choices based on 'heart', and then probably I will blame myself because I will think that heart is not enough and I am missing here some quality.

“You can improve. You can influence players, especially when they are open to it, when a player realises he has to give more and change his nature.

“When they are open, they change. They change a little bit, not the DNA but the players’ emotional qualities."