Mourinho: I am not upset

Jose Mourinho can take criticism but admits he will do anything to protect his players.

Mourinho has come under fire following Manchester United's three successive defeats and he took aim at some "football Einsteins" in the wake of his side's 3-1 win over Northampton in the EFL Cup midweek.

Speaking at his weekly press conference, Mourinho once again took the opportunity to hit back at those who have criticised him and his players on the back of their inconsistent start to the season.

"I am not upset with anything. I am such a lucky guy that I can't be upset with anything. I am upset with nothing," he said.

"The only thing that upsets me a little bit is the criticism of my players. My players are my players.

"I should protect them, I would love to protect them and from you, I can't. That is something that is completely out of my control.

"That doesn't upset me. It just gives me a feeling that it's hard. It's like when you want to protect people and you can't.

"It's a feeling of frustration but with me it's fine and with the Einsteins it's fine. The Einsteins, they need money to live.

"They can't coach, they can't sit on the bench, they can't win matches. They can speak, they can write, they can criticise the work of other people.

"I am a good man. I'm a man of goodwill, I do lots of charity, I help so many people so why not feed the Einsteins? That's fine."

Wayne Rooney's performances have generated a lot of negative comments in recent weeks but Mourinho has jumped to the defence of his captain.

"We are a team, we are not Wayne Rooney," Mourinho said.

"We all started well, we all won four matches, and we all lost three matches in a week, so that is not [just] Wayne Rooney.

"To be honest he did not even play against Feyenoord, so he was directly involved in the last two matches.

"We had a very good start to the season, better than we expected and prepared for, and we were guilty of raising the expectations of the people and then we lost three matches in a row."

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