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MANCHESTER. — Jose Mourinho launched an astonishing verbal tirade against his Manchester United players after they reached the FA Cup soccer semi-finals, accusing them of “a lack of personality, lack of class and lack of desire”.

Just 24 hours after the United manager had made a memorable defence of his own record in the pre-match press conference, Mourinho turned his attention to his players after a comfortable 2-0 quarter-final victory over Brighton on Saturday night.

Only Nemanja Matic, who set up the opening goal for Romelu Lukaku before scoring a late second himself, and youngster Scott McTominay were spared massive criticism.

And after Mourinho claimed he was looking for a response to the midweek Champions League exit to Sevilla, the Portuguese veteran even claimed some of his players lacked the personality and desire to play for the famous English Premier League club.

“I didn’t like the game,” said Mourinho. “I think we deserved to win but I didn’t have the reaction from all of them.

“I had the reaction from some of them. Some of them were mentally strong enough with the football quality to play – that was the reason we won.

“But a team of 11, when you have a minimum of six or seven players performing and wanting to play, who want the responsibility to have the ball, who have the desire really to play – it is difficult to have a good performance.

“So I am not happy with the performance at all. But I am happy with the result.”

England full-back Luke Shaw was the one player named by Mourinho as having failed to follow his game plan and was, accordingly, substituted at half-time. — AFP