Jose's verdict on Bayern Munich

Information was key for Jose Mourinho in Germany on Wednesday night – and in that respect, it was mission accomplished despite our 3-1 loss to Bayern Munich.

It was a ‘dead rubber’ at the Allianz Arena with the hosts already clinching top spot in Group B with five wins in five before this encounter while we secured second place and a place in the knockout phase of Europe’s elite competition by beating Olympiacos last time out.

Nevertheless, pride was at stake and Jose had the chance to watch the likes of Juan Foyth, Kyle Walker-Peters, Giovani Lo Celso, Ryan Sessegnon and even Christian Eriksen all start for the first time under his leadership.

Ryan certainly grasped his chance on his first start for the Club, marking his full debut by firing home the equaliser past Manuel Neuer on 20 minutes. We had our best spell after that but were hit by the blow of conceding just before half-time. Bayern were on top after that, Philippe Coutinho curled home a third on 64 minutes and despite a couple of late chances, it stayed 3-1.

Asked what he learned from the performance, positive and negative, Jose responded: “The negatives, I don’t tell you! It would be unfair from me to speak about conclusions.

“So, no conclusions, just information. That is very important for me, because some of the players played their first minutes for me, some of the players, for example, Juan Foyth, it was the first time he played and it’s important for me to collect information, information that you usually collect during the season, during pre-season.

“I have just arrived and I need information, so the fact that we qualified gave us this possibility, and the fact that we played so well in the last match and won 5-0 and we were in a positive mood to come here and risk what happened.

“I’m happy with the decisions I made, and I hope that our supporters understand what I did.

“Internally, we all understand, we all agreed that was the best option for the players who are playing every minute, the best option for the players who are not playing and the young players who need to develop.

“We made this decision and it’s the best decision for the team. We risk, because we played against a very good team, a team that came with two defeats in a row, a team that cannot lose tonight, impossible for them to lose a third match in a row, second at home, so we knew they would come very strong.

“On top of that, they had a bench full of top players, so if they needed in an extreme situation Lewandowski to come into the game, they had him on the bench. I decided not to have even Kane, Dele Alli on the bench.

“I would prefer a better result, obviously, I would prefer even a 3-2 defeat with a Son goal in the last minute, but that’s what it is and I’m happy with the information that I take back. I take lots of information about players that are going to influence my decisions in the future.”