Jose Mourinho reaction: Happy with players, mad at injuries and referee

Come for the game action. Stay for the Jose Mourinho reaction.

Tottenham Hotspur boss Jose Mourinho lamented two missing players and the referee after his side blew a halftime lead in a 1-1 home draw with Manchester United on Friday.

Mourinho was “happy with things, unhappy with others,” crediting his players for their attitude, plan-following, and “giving to United what they don’t like.”

[ MORE: Match recap | JPW’s Three Things ]

The boss said he was displeased because he had three attackers coming back from injury who didn’t have the energy to press high for 90 minutes. Two of Harry Kane, Heung-min Son, and Steven Bergwijn would’ve been pulled for Lucas Moura and Dele Alli on another day (if the latter two weren’t starting altogether).

Gedson Fernandes and Giovani Lo Celso replaced Erik Lamela and Bergwijn, while Harvey White and Ryan Sessegnon were unused subs.

“Unhappy with the fact that the way I was reading the game I had no bench to react to it, with Lucas and Dele. They would be on the bench or playing. When (United) became more dominant and (we were) tired up front, we couldn’t build. It was hard to manage the game in that sense.”

Mourinho also didn’t like referee Jon Moss’ day on two penalties, as well as VAR not overturning both of them. VAR did reverse Moss’ call on a late Bruno Fernandes dive.

“I’m not happy with the penalty and also not happy with the second penalty. The referee in the game can make a mistake, can give a cheap penalty but VAR can do its job. On the second penalty I’m unhappy with Moss because he didn’t give the free kick on Serge and again he gave the penalty. In this case, VAR gave the truth.”

Spurs are four points back of fifth and six back of fourth with several teams around them yet to play a 30th match. The North London side next meets West Ham next in a London Derby.