Northampton boss Rob Page has questioned Jose Mourinho's public criticism of his Manchester United's players.

Page - who played for Watford - was at the game on Sunday to see Mourinho suffer a third defeat in a row for the first time since he was at Porto in 2002.

Page admitted he preferred to do his tongue-lashing out of the public glare.

“Listen, if a player needs criticising, I'll do it," he said ahead of tomorrow's League Cup tie. I tend to do it in the changing room, within the four walls, and get it done and protect the players every now and again when they need to.

“But there's times in the season, I've been involved with clubs where you need to come out and criticise them. But it's knowing when to do it, and how to get the best reaction out of them.

“Each manager's different, so I'm not going to sit and criticise Jose for doing that. He feels it gets the best out of the players.

“Man-management's a big part of football now, and you only know how to deal with those players when you work with them day-in, day-out.

“He knows the players that he deals with can take that criticism and show him that they need to improve. So each manager has his own way of dealing with it."