Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has revealed what he said at halftime to spark his players into life against Manchester City.

United were overwhelmed in a forlorn first-half against their neighbours, who were utterly dominant until Claudio Bravo gifted Zlatan Ibrahimovic a goal.

Mourinho admitted he was 'disappointed' with some individual performers and felt the magnitude of the game affected certain players' focus.

"What I said at half-time I told them in the last three days, instead of 10 minutes, much more," Mourinho explained. "So every time we were preparing the game and every time we were analysing and trying to reduce the unpredictability of the game, we spoke about this situations.

"What I told them at half-time was for some of you it looks like you are trying to do what I told you not to do. And it was this: I told 20 times today never play the first station ball, never, never play because it's where they want to press. It happened 20 times during the game. "So I think some of the boys, they felt the dimension of the game, they felt the dimension of the game, everything around the game, the derby, the big game, Man United v Man City, the focus, the attention, I felt that some of the guys felt it."