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'Defensive' tag unfair on Mourinho, says Herrera

Cape Town - Midfielder Ander Herrera has dismissed suggestions that Manchester United are too defensive at times, insisting there is no way to be successful with such an approach.

Red Devils boss Jose Mourinho has often been criticised for being overly cautious in big games, where he appears happy to settle for a point - as evidenced in the goalless draw at Liverpool last month.

Mourinho won three trophies in his debut season at Old Trafford, which started with victory over Leicester in the Community Shield and ended with the EFL Cup and Europa League titles.

Herrera feels that is proof enough that the Portuguese coach isn't nearly as conservative as he's made out to be, while the 28-year-old midfielder also pointed to their record this term as further confirmation.

"If you look at Manchester United's statistics, until three weeks ago, we had scored the same number of goals as Manchester City had and we were the second-highest goalscoring team in the league," he told beIN SPORTS.

"Many times the tags in football are needed from a journalistic standpoint but they don't reflect the truth, like in Mourinho's case.

"Last year, we won three titles having the majority of possession in most of the games and creating more [goalscoring] chances than our opponents.

"It's impossible to win three titles in a given season being defensive, it's just impossible."

Meanwhile, United are a point away from confirming their qualification to the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League.

The Europa Champions face Basel on Wednesday evening.

Kick off is at 21:45. 

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