Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho, has blamed his predecessors, after the 3-1 defeat to Liverpool on Sunday.

United slumped to their fifth defeat of the league campaign, with Mourinho claiming some of his players are “permanently injured” and lack the stregth to compete with Jurgen Klopp’s side.

Two second-half goals from sub Xherdan Shaqiri sealed the win for Liverpool, which took them back above Manchester City at the top of the table.

And under-fire Mourinho, whose position is once again under threat, blamed the injured players he inherited from former bosses David Moyes and Louis van Gaal, for United’s current inability to compete with the likes of Liverpool and City.

“We have lots of problems related to physicality.

“We have lots of players that I could consider injury problems, because some of our players are always injured and it’s not with me – it was before me.

“If you look to the stats with Mr Van Gaal and David, we had players that are permanently injured and, when you’re permanently injured, physicality is difficult to get.

“Then there are qualities you cannot improve or make them have. Robertson, Mane, Salah, Wijnaldum, Keita, Fabinho, they are physical players and on top of that they are good technically.

“I have lots of good players technically, but we don’t have that intensity or physicality,” Mourinho said after the game.