Jose Mourinho says Manchester United dressing room difficulties 'not just in his hands'

Mourinho accepted on Friday that United’s recent results have not been up to the required standard

Jose Mourinho has said he cannot be held solely responsible for any difficulties in the Manchester United dressing room, claiming some things are 'not just in his hands'.

Mourinho accepted on Friday that United’s recent results have not been up to the required standard, ahead of the visit of Rafael Benitez’s Newcastle United this weekend.

United’s winless run will stretch to five games if they fail to pick up three points on Saturday and their recent form has coincided with reports of unrest within the squad.

Mourinho has regularly criticised the attitude of his players in recent weeks and, earlier this week, warned his squad they were in danger of losing their “dignity”.

“All of my life, I have followed certain golden rules,” he wrote in his programme notes for Tuesday’s goalless draw with Valencia.

“One of them is that a team can lose matches - that is just part of football - but the team must never, ever lose its dignity.

“That leads me to another pair of golden rules that must be followed: the team is always more important than the individual, and the crest on the chest is more important than the name on the back of the shirt.”

When asked at his pre-Newcastle press conference on Friday why it has proved so difficult to unify the squad and have them work together, a terse and often monosyllabic Mourinho appeared to partially absolve himself of the blame.

“Because sometimes things are not just in the manager’s hands,” he said, without expanding further on his answer.

Mourinho describes last year’s second-place Premier League finish and run to the FA Cup final as a “phenomenal” achievement this week, despite United finishing 19 points behind rivals Manchester City.

“Success has a direct relation with your own potential and a direct relation with the potential if your opponents,” Mourinho explained on Friday.

“The last season was phenomenal exactly because of these two factors – our potential and the potential of our opponents. I think opponents with much more potential than us finished behind us. That is the reason why it was a phenomenal season.”

Mourinho added: “With all the respect and I hope they don’t interpret me in a negative way, if we are playing in a league like the Swiss league and we don’t win that league, anything else apart from winning that league would be an awful season.

“In this season with the potential of our direct opposition, last season to finish second was a fantastic season for us.”