Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho said he would not let his players be in a negative mood despite the recent results not going the team's way.
After starting the 2016/17 season on a high by clinching the Community Shield against Leicester City and starting the Premier League with three successive wins, United have succumbed to back-to-back defeats in a span of six days. Following their 2-1 derby loss to Manchester City on 10 September, Mourinho's men have made a poor start to their 2016/17 Europa League campaign by going down 1-0 at Feyenoord on Thursday.
Tonny Vilhena scored the only goal of the night in the 79th minute of the game at the De Kuip stadium. United struggled to seize any control of the match even after Mourinho fielded a strong unit.
Reacting to the loss against Pep Guardiola's men, the 53-year-old made eight changes to the team that played at Old Trafford on Saturday. While defenders Marcos Rojo and Matteo Darmian made their first appearance for United under their newly-appointed manager, Morgan Schneiderlin, Chris Smalling and Marcus Rashford started for the team in Rotterdam.
Big-money signing Paul Pogba failed to be effective in the midfield and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who came in as a second half substitute, made futile attempts at getting the equaliser. Despite his team's lacklustre display, Mourinho maintained he was not overly concerned.
"When we won the Community Shield and three Premier League matches I was not on the moon saying we are a phenomenal team that will destroy every opponent. I said, 'Yes good start, very good start' but I never was on the moon. I know the situation is not click your fingers and everybody is perfect," Mourinho was quoted as saying by The Guardian.
"When you lose matches, there are no miracles in terms of the players' soul.
"You win matches, people are happy and full of confidence. You lose matches and people are sad and feel it. But of course I'm here not to let them be in a negative mood or in a negative period because we lost two matches."
Mourinho said he did not want to single out players after his changes failed to have the desired impact. He hinted he would revert back to normal squad for the Premier League clash against Watford on 18 September.
"Look I don't want to personalise. Some of the players were playing their first minutes of the season, not many minutes for them. Obviously some played better than others but I have to understand that some of these players haven't played week after week like the other boys," Mourinho added.
"It is obvious that we left players like [Antonio] Valencia and [Luke] Shaw at home to play and to rest so we go back to a normal team without so many changes."
