Jose Mourinho plays down spat with Chelsea manager Antonio Conte

Jose Mourinho has played down any animosity with Antonio Conte but revealed he does "cry about fixtures".

Ahead of United's visit to Huddersfield on Saturday the three-time Premier League winning manager appeared to blame the media over any tension between the two but admitted "I don't speak to him".

Mourinho, who criticised managers who cry about injuries; which was deemed to be targeted at Conte who has bemoaned the loss of key personnel, suggesting managers use injuries as an excuse for loss of form but said that was not his "philosophy".

"I don't speak to him," Mourinho said. "I don't know why he speaks to me but that is no problem or maybe it is not his fault and it is the journalists fault when they pass to him the wrong message.

"There are managers all over the world that by philosophy they prefer to speak about injuries, they prefer to try to find the excuse of a hypothetical failure based on injuries.

"Since last season we had big injuries and last season you know that without Lukaku, Zlatan was even more important for us and [everyone knows] what Pogba means for us.

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"Our philosophy is not to moan, to cry [about injuries]. I moan about other things, I cry about fixtures, [having] no time to rest in between matches. I moan that I don't understand that we play Saturday after Wednesday when we should play Sunday. I moan about this all the time but not about injuries."

The Portuguese manager defended his record regarding voicing his discontent over injury losses and instead preferred to highlight the opportunities offered to some of his fringe players including Manchester United youth product Scott McTominay who featured in the United's 1-0 victory over Benfica on Wednesday.

Mourinho added: "If some managers say Mourinho always moans about the fixtures then they are right but nobody can say I moan about injuries because I always try to speak about opportunities for other players.

"Would Scott McTominay make his debut in the Champions League if we have Carrick, Pogba and Fellaini available? No - he wouldn't even be on the bench."

The two-time Champions League winning manager also insisted that he is not hurt by his critics who complained about his strategy and game management, in the aftermath of the goalless draw against Liverpool last week, and maintained that he knows his squad the best.

United are unbeaten from their opening 12 games in all competitions this season and have picked up nine points from their opening three fixtures in European football.

"It is not a motivation," said Mourinho. "It doesn't change my mind, stability - nothing at all. We work hard, we try to do the best we can. We try to have the best results we can.

"If a team defends poorly and concedes five goals but attacks phenomenally well and scores six then that is absolutely beautiful and amazing.

"I know that my team can't score four, five or six goals every match. I know that especially with a certain profile of match it is difficult for us to score a lot of goals so we have to try and find the balance and I am really happy with what the team is doing."

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The 54-year-old is prepared for the inevitable interrogation of his side's performances and believes those within the game are used to his teams "having good results and winning titles".

"Other people have different standards than I have and that is not a problem for me. I can imagine we will have criticism when we do not lose. We are going to lose matches, that is obvious, and I can imagine we are going to have even more criticism than we have now. But honestly, no problem."

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