The theatre of draws

MANCHESTER. — Jose Mourinho admitted Manchester United are not scoring enough goals after Zlatan Ibrahimovic salvaged a point with a 94th-minute penalty in their 1-1 draw with Everton at Old Trafford on Tuesday night.

United’s top-four hopes suffered another blow after a ninth English Premier League draw at home took their tally of dropped points at home to 21 this season.

Mourinho’s side have managed just 21 goals at home in the league, fewer than Burnley, Bournemouth, West Brom, Watford and Leicester, with Mourinho acknowledging the need to improve.

“I could feel some of the boys in trouble by the confidence levels,” said Mourinho. “So we had to start playing more direct. We’ve had lots of unlucky decisions by referees. We’ve had lots of amazing performances from opposing goalkeepers.

“We’ve had lots of ultra-defensive teams coming here, but we need to score goals. We have chances and we need to score goals.”

Ashley Williams was sent off for handling Luke Shaw’s goalbound effort in added time, Ibrahimovic’s subsequent penalty cancelling out Phil Jagielka’s opener and stretching United’s unbeaten league run to 20 games.

“I would sign immediately for 20 matches unbeaten next season because in the modern Premier League it’s very difficult to do it,” said Mourinho.

“But we need to score goals to win matches. We don’t score enough goals. We’re the second team in the Premier League with most shots, but we are the third worst in relation to shots and the number of goals we score.

“How many goals have Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Paul Pogba scored? How many goals from the attacking players? Not enough.”

Mourinho savaged Luke Shaw again, despite the left-back coming off the bench and earning the penalty with his late effort on goal.

Mourinho has told Shaw to improve his understanding of the game if he wants to win a regular place in the side.

Shaw made his first appearance in a month against Everton on Tuesday and won the stoppage-time penalty that allowed Ibrahimovic to earn United a 1-1 draw.

But having strongly criticised Shaw after leaving him out of the squad for Saturday’s 0-0 draw with West Bromwich Albion, Mourinho again took the 21-year-old left-back to task.

“He had a good performance, but it was his body with my brain,” Mourinho told reporters at Old Trafford.

“He was in front of me and I was making every decision for him. We need at this level the fantastic body to play football, but he cannot play (by relying on) my understanding of the game. He must understand, he must think, he must accelerate the process. He is 21, he is old enough to have a better understanding of the game. But today he has with a positive feeling.”

Phil Jagielka’s 22nd-minute opener looked poised to condemn United to a first defeat in 20 league games.

But deep into stoppage time, Shaw’s shot was handled by Ashley Williams, who was sent off and Ibrahimovic converted the equaliser from the spot on his return from a three-match suspension.

Mourinho’s side have scored just once from 36 efforts at goal in their last two matches and the manager is demanding a better conversion rate.

He admitted that striker Marcus Rashford, without a league goal since September, is short on confidence.

“It’s easy to see in the kid,” Mourinho said. “He is desperate. He tries. It’s not a surprise for me. The second year after the first one is difficult.

“It’s something I will try to find if it happened with Ryan Giggs, if he appeared as a kid and then the next year was not the same. The kid (Rashford) is phenomenal, an amazing professional.”

Reflecting on a result that left United four points off the Champions League places, Mourinho said: “Twenty matches unbeaten is amazing.

“In the modern Premier League, it’s very difficult to do it. But we need to score goals to win matches.

“We almost lost the game against West Brom because of a bad mistake. Today we almost lost the game because of a bad mistake.

“There is not one match at home that doesn’t have emotion because we go until the end and we try and we change system and we try. But we don’t score enough goals.” — The Mirror.