Instead, the Portuguese’s mood has been further soured by seeing another fierce rival Liverpool steal a march with a £170-million ($220 million) splurge on new signings.

“If we don’t make our team better it will be a difficult season for us,” Mourinho warned earlier this week, so far to no avail ahead of Thursday’s transfer deadline.

After securing the signatures of Brazilian international midfielder Fred and Portuguese teenage full-back Diogo Dalot early in the window, strengthening his centre-back options has been Mourinho’s priority.

– United shorthanded –

But United are even more shorthanded by the quick turnaround between the World Cup and the start of the new season.

Romelu Lukaku, Marcus Rashford, Phil Jones and Victor Lindelof were all praised by Mourinho for cutting short their holidays to return to training and be in the frame to play a part on Friday.

Paul Pogba did not follow suit as the French World Cup winner’s frosty relationship with Mourinho has sparked interest from Barcelona.

But Mourinho must finally get the best from his star midfielder and Alexis Sanchez to avoid his third season in charge turning sour as it did in his second spell at Chelsea and Real Madrid.

Mourinho was sacked by Chelsea in December 2015 with the then-Premier League champions languishing in 16th, just one point above the relegation places.

Likewise in his final campaign in the Spanish capital in 2012/13, Mourinho clashed with a number of senior players in a trophyless season.

The ingredients appear to be in place for another Mourinho meltdown should United get off to a bad start and he believes even the scheduling of his side’s opening fixture has made his task even harder.

“I want to say a nice word, we were unlucky to get the Friday match as we could get the Sunday,” he bemoaned at opening the campaign.

“Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday (to prepare) is not enough.”

One of Mourinho’s most trusted lieutenants Nemanja Matic will miss the start of the season due to surgery on an abdominal injury, while Eric Bailly and Ander Herrera are also doubts after picking up knocks in United’s final pre-season friendly defeat by Bayern Munich.

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Spain international Martinez nodded in from a corner on 59 minutes as the German champions overcame a lacklustre display from Mourinho’s side who face Leicester City at home on Friday.

“In the week, we have to organise the week in a way so we can be fresh for Friday because, on Friday, the Premier League starts. We play for points and it’s with the players we have,” Mourinho told MUTV.

“There is no time to cry. Players are not going to be here on Friday and we have to go with best possible team and with a great mentality.”

Mourinho still remains hopeful of strengthening his side in the transfer window before the August 9 deadline, with Brazil international midfielder Fred the club’s top signing this summer.

“My CEO knows what I want for quite a long time,” Mourinho told German TV ahead of Sunday’s game. “I know he tries to do the best for me, and I still have a few days to wait and see what is going to happen.”

Marcus Rashford and Victor Lindelof returned for United on Sunday after their post-World Cup break, although the visitors lost Eric Bailly to injury after the interval following a collision with Serge Gnabry.

“Finally, it’s over. Finally, such a difficult pre-season is over. The players were, once more, brilliant, they could not have done better than what they did,” added Mourinho to MUTV.

Rashford wore the number 10 short, previously the Old Trafford property of the likes of Wayne Rooney and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

“He wanted it. He always wanted it,” said Mourinho.

“Of course, he respected Rooney and then Zlatan wanted to have it. Of course, he was in the shadow, waiting for the opportunity and now the shirt is empty.

“It’s something fantastic for the kid, let’s give the shirt to him.”

Bayern, under new coach Niko Kovac, will head back to their training camp in Tegernsee ahead of next weekend’s German Super Cup against Eintracht Frankfurt.

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A downbeat Mourinho on Tuesday refused to comment when asked if he was confident of winning the Premier League title this week.

“I don’t answer to your question,” Mourinho told reporters at United’s Los Angeles training base ahead of a friendly against AC Milan on Wednesday.

Asked if he was happy at how United’s pre-season had worked out, Mourinho added: “No. I got the facilities as always. I got the incredible commitment of the people that are involved in the process of preparing a good pre-season. I’m happy with the matches, the evolution of the matches.

“But I don’t have the players to work with. I don’t have the majority of the players that are going to be in the squad on August 9th when the market closes and we can make the squad official for the season.

“Of course I’m not happy. I’m not happy to have just a few players.”

Mourinho said he does not expect to have his team’s sizeable World Cup contingent available before their third game on August 27 against Tottenham.

United open their campaign at Old Trafford against Leicester City on August 10 before travelling to Brighton on August 19 for their second fixture.

Mourinho said his team would have to battle to take points out of the opening two fixtures.

“The first match of the season is against Leicester and the second one is against Brighton,” Mourinho said.

“When I look to Leicester, if I’m not wrong, only (Harry) Maguire and (Jamie) Vardy, were in the World Cup in the final phase.

“I think a team that is working for six weeks minimum, with only one central defender and one striker missing, it is clear how much better the situation is for them.

“When I look to Brighton on the second game, I don’t think they have any player that is not doing a very good pre-season with lots of matches and training together.

“So of course against Leicester and Brighton the situation is not amazing for us…we will have to fight for the points with the players we have available.”

While United’s title rivals have also embarked on pre-season tours missing several World Cup stars, Mourinho rejected suggestions the mass absenteeism would create a “level playing field.”

“If you look to the players that Chelsea and Liverpool have in the pre-season, especially these two teams, also Arsenal, you see the difference of the situation,” he said.

“Man City and Tottenham in a similar situation as we are, but other clubs are in a different situation.”

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“Today I think was a clear difference in the desire to fight for the targets,” said Mourinho, whose side missed the chance to all but secure second place in the Premier League behind champions Manchester City.

“They clearly showed that, for them, it’s more important for them to stay in the Premier League than for us to finish second. They showed it from the first minute, and we didn’t show that.

“I am disappointed because second is important for me. I’m not sure every one of my players is disappointed.”

Chants of “We are staying up” rang around a packed house at the Amex Stadium at full-time as victory moved Brighton up to 11th and more importantly eight points clear of the bottom three.

With third-bottom Southampton and 17th-placed Swansea to meet on Tuesday, Brighton now can’t now be relegated.

“I felt that we’ve deserved to stay in this league for our season’s work,” said Brighton boss Chris Hughton.

“But if we’d lost today and the next two, it would have been a real feeling of injustice had we gone down. So relief that we’ve done it now, but I’m also really proud of a group of players.”

By contrast, defeat means United must wait to secure second as they remain five points clear of Liverpool with Tottenham a point further adrift.

United were without either of the injured Romelu Lukaku or Alexis Sanchez, and their firepower was missed as Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford failed to make the most of rare chances to start up front.

– ‘I know my players better’ –

“For many months you are always asking me why this player doesn’t play? Why that player doesn’t play? Why this player is on the bench? Why always Lukaku?” added Mourinho.

“I know my players better than you, and probably you don’t know them so well to be always with these questions.”

The visitors did have the ball in the net after just four minutes when Marouane Fellaini turned Rashford’s free-kick in from close range, but the Belgian was rightly flagged for offside.

United secured a top-four finish by beating Arsenal 2-1 last weekend, and Brighton’s more desperate need for the points shone through.

David de Gea was the only United player selected in the PFA’s Premier League team of the year and the Spaniard showed why he has again been his side’s outstanding performer this season with a stunning fingertip save to turn a dipping volley from Glenn Murray behind.

Brighton’s survival party had been put on hold by a run of seven games without a win.

But they got the helping hand they needed from the goal-line technology system to seal another campaign in the Premier League on their return to the top flight after 34 years on 57 minutes.

The dangerous Jose Izquierdo got to the byline and when his cross was parried by De Gea, the ball crossed the line from Gross’s header by the finest of margins before being hooked clear by Marcos Rojo.

City can now break United’s record winning margin of 18 points from the 1999/2000 season should they win their remaining three games.

Matt Ryan saved well from Rashford before Martial and Jesse Lingard fired off target as Brighton held out despite a late United rally.

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Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has slammed Frank de Boer over comments the former Crystal Palace manager made about striker Marcus Rashford.

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That followed criticism from Mourinho of Pogba’s recent performances, with the Portuguese making a statement by selecting McTominay, 21, alongside Ander Herrera and Nemanja Matic in midfield.

Mourinho later complained that there had been too much focus on Pogba before and after the match, and not enough on a player making his second Champions League start.

“In my pre-match interview I had four questions and three were about Paul, and Paul was not even playing. That’s a bit strange,” he said.

“If I was one of you (journalists), I would ask if the Manchester United manager agrees that Scott McTominay had a fantastic performance, and my answer would be that yes, he had a fantastic performance.

“He looked a senior player, a player with great maturity. Scott probably looked like a man with dozens and dozens of matches in the Champions League when this is only the second (start).”

Pogba played most of the game anyway, being sent on after just 17 minutes when injury forced Herrera off.

The French star played his part in a typically cautious, backs-to-the-wall away European performance from Mourinho’s side. But, tellingly, he later refused to stop for journalists in the mixed zone of the Sanchez Pizjuan.

“Paul made a big effort to try to give the team what I asked of them,” insisted Mourinho.

“He gave us stability. For a match away to Sevilla we had a good percentage of the ball, and I think Paul had responsibility for that.”

– Doctors blamed for Herrera injury –

The injury to Herrera came after the Spaniard had been passed fit to return from a hamstring injury that had kept him out of United’s previous three games.

He could now face another untimely spell on the sidelines, with United’s programme including Premier League games against Chelsea and Liverpool before the Sevilla second leg on March 13.

“The medical department gave him fully fit. On the pitch he showed the intensity that is only possible if you are fully fit,” Mourinho said.

“Then it was a back-heel and a back-heel creates a contraction in the muscular area where he had the biggest problem, and now we have proof that he was not 100 percent fit.”

“Even with a couple of mistakes the team defended well,” Mourinho said. “When we made the mistakes David was obviously there and that is the reason why he is what he is.”

United are hoping to reach the quarter-finals for the first time since 2014, while Sevilla have never made it past the last 16 of the Champions League in three attempts in the last decade.

Their coach Vincenzo Montella believes his side have a good chance of progressing, despite struggling recently in big matches away from home.

“I think this Sevilla have to always play to score and try to be superior to our opponents,” said the Italian.

“It is not always possible but that is what we have to do, and play to win.”

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The Chelsea manager, clearly furious at Mourinho’s latest salvo regarding Conte’s ban for failing to report match-fixing while working in Italy, used the majority of his press conference after the 0-0 draw at Norwich to leave no doubt of the contempt in which he holds his Manchester United counterpart.

In a lengthy and clearly premeditated outburst he also brought up Mourinho’s show of support for the former Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri, appearing to suggest it had been an affectation.

“I think before you make this type of comment, before to hurt another person, you must pay great attention,” Conte said of Mourinho, who had stated the previous day he had never been, and will never be, suspended for match-fixing.

“You show you are a little man. A little man. You don’t know very well [what] is the situation. But I know him very well in the past. In the past he was a little man in many circumstances, is a little man in the present and for sure he will be a little man in the future.

“Also if he wants to try to change his behaviours … but the person’s this, Mourinho’s this. You know him very well. The level is very low. I repeat: I think before to speak you have to know very well what happened.”

Mourinho’s jibe had followed a suggestion from Conte earlier on Friday that the Portuguese was suffering from “demenza senile”. That was in response to an assertion from Mourinho that he did not have to “behave as a clown on the touchline” to demonstrate his passion, seen as a reference to Conte.

At the time Chelsea stressed that Conte had meant “amnesia” rather than the direct English translation of “senile dementia” and he settled on the former when returning to the theme at Carrow Road. “This is not my problem, I consider him a little man,” Conte repeated. “I consider him a man with a very low profile.

“There is a story to speak for him and for me. You can change the story, but you have to know the story very well before hurting another person. In the last period he’s suffering a bit of amnesia. We are there, amnesia. When you become to be older, there is this type of risk. Also for me, and for you – for all. The problem is if you show this. He must pay great attention. He’s doing this with regularity.”

Conte explained the facts of his four-month suspension while manager of Juventus, which was handed down for allegedly neglecting to inform the authorities of match-fixing offences during an earlier spell in charge of Siena. He was found innocent in May 2016.

His evisceration of Mourinho did not end there and, without prompting, he raised what he saw as the two-faced treatment of Ranieri. “I remember a stupid example with Ranieri,” he said. “When he offended Ranieri for his English. Then when Ranieri was sacked he put on a shirt for Ranieri. You are a fake. I think you have good consideration for a person or not. It doesn’t change your opinion to be more sympathetic. If you want to fight a person, you try to kill this person. And then after two years you try to help this person, because maybe it’s good for you, for your profile.”

That referred to an incident in 2008, during which Mourinho said his Chelsea predecessor had “still struggled to say ‘good morning’ and ‘good afternoon’” during five years in England. After Ranieri was sacked by Leicester last February, Mourinho arrived at a press conference with the letters “CR” emblazoned on his training top.

The rapid intensification of an enmity that has festered for some time could come to a head on 25 February, when Chelsea visit Old Trafford. “It will be the opportunity in the game against United when we go to Old Trafford,” Conte said. “Me and him face to face. I’m ready. I don’t know if he’s ready.”

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“Do you think I’m worried with that now, in this moment? With captain and Paul and Paul and captain? No. Do you have any more questions about the game?”

“It’s related to the game,” came the reply.

“No, it’s not related to the game,” said Mourinho, rising from his chair. “What do you mean the armband? What is the influence in the game?”

“We’re just trying to do our job and get a line.”

“Which line? The line of the captain? Pfff. That’s not a line,” the Manchester United manager shrugged dismissively as he started walking towards the door. “Any more questions? Merry Christmas, eh.”

Even as Mourinho rants go, his reaction to being asked about Paul Pogba’s first Premier League match as United captain was one of the more bizarre matters over which to lose his temper. But this has been a month in which the 54-year-old has been involved in a tunnel bust-up at Old Trafford, walked out of a press conference accusing the media of a lack of respect for Bournemouth, and referred to Bristol City as lucky after a cup defeat. He is growing increasingly frustrated as Manchester City sweep all before them.

Accusing his players of making “childish decisions” in the dying moments of Saturday’s match was an indication that Mourinho is quickly losing patience with some of the senior members of his squad, with Anthony Martial, Ashley Young and Chris Smalling – forced to play on with an injury because United had no substitutes remaining – the potential culprits he had in mind.

It brought back memories of his bitter attack on his Chelsea side after their defeat at Leicester a little more than two years ago. On that occasion Mourinho accused his players of betraying him as they suffered a ninth league defeat of the season despite having won the title a few months earlier – he was sacked two days later. Although there is a long way to go before he reaches that scale of meltdown, there is compelling evidence that the early stages of his notorious third-season syndrome may have arrived way ahead of schedule.

A question about Paul Pogba, left, captaining Manchester United at Leicester prompted José Mourinho to lose his temper. Photograph: Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Image

For a manager who has never failed to win the domestic title in his second season at any of his clubs, it is easy to understand why. Even with United starting the second half of the season in their highest position since they won the Premier League in 2013, Mourinho finds his team cut adrift of Pep Guardiola’s City. A lack of professionalism against Leicester cost them, with Martial and Jesse Lingard spurning opportunities to secure a win.

But the withering assessment that there was a “lack of maturity” is unlikely to have been well received in the dressing room, especially by Young, whom Mourinho accused of failing to get his message across. The England international has emerged as one of his most trusted lieutenants, captaining the side on more than one occasion this season, so it was surprising to hear him singled out.

But, as Mourinho admitted so publicly, the armband does not mean much to him. In the absence of the club captain, Michael Carrick, Antonio Valencia has been the regular choice for most of this season along with Smalling, with Pogba stepping in on Saturday. Perhaps that is part of the problem?

It is difficult to imagine a United side containing Steve Bruce or Roy Keane succumbing to such a sloppy equaliser against 10 men with the last kick of the match and Mourinho’s inability to relay his instructions to his team via Young when Smalling was injured does not reflect well on the manager’s relationship with his team.

A trusted captain can provide the crucial link between players and manager that appears to be missing at the moment – a role to which Pogba should be perfectly suited. His suspension for the Manchester derby was a bitter blow to Mourinho’s hopes of taking the game to City but with the midfielder back in the side it would make sense to entrust him with the captaincy for the long term.

The home fixture against Burnley on Boxing Day provides United with the chance of immediate redemption, and the subsequent games against Southampton and away at Everton must be won to stand any chance of keeping the title race alive. As Mourinho himself once said: “As the coach and leader you must be the master motivator of your team.” Now is the time for him to prove that his methods can still have an effect.

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Arteta’s eyebrow was split open during a melee in a narrow corridor outside City’s dressing room and there were unconfirmed reports that another member of Guardiola’s backroom staff needed medical treatment after a confrontation sparked by José Mourinho apparently telling the victorious players to keep their music down.

Mourinho became embroiled in a row with Ederson, City’s Brazilian goalkeeper, who was standing just inside the dressing-room door and the two started shouting insults at one another in Portuguese. Mourinho is said to have accused Ederson of play-acting to waste time and then reverted to English, screaming “you fucking show respect. Who are you?”

Other players became involved and Romelu Lukaku was said to be prominently involved as the confrontation escalated into something much more serious, described by one person on the scene as being reminiscent of a pub fight. Early accounts indicate it was a much more serious incident than the infamous “Battle of the Buffet” in 2004 when Arsenal were the opponents and Sir Alex Ferguson was hit by flying pizza slices.

There were also reports that Mourinho was struck by a plastic bottle, as well as being squirted with milk, although that has not been confirmed and the Guardian has been told he escaped lightly despite being in the middle of it. Once everything had calmed down, Mourinho went into the referee’s room to voice his complaints to Michael Oliver about the incident when Ander Herrera was booked for going down under a challenge from Nicolas Otamendi in the penalty area.

Mourinho then emerged to do his television interviews and there was no sign of him needing to dry off. He did not make any reference to what had happened during all his media work.

Arteta, meanwhile, was being assessed in the City dressing room after being caught in the crossfire. United’s players are understood to feel like the noise from the away dressing room was provocatively loud and, with the door continually being opened, Mourinho appears to have been asking more respect to be shown to the losing team.

As the confrontation escalated, Sergio Aguero and Bernardo Silva were caught on the outside looking in, having not been inside the dressing room when it started. However, other City players were clearly incensed by Mourinho’s behaviour and the fact that several players, most notably Lukaku, had become involved. There are always two police officers in the Old Trafford tunnel after games and eventually they helped to restore peace.

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