Jose Mourinho has revealed that a "short meeting" was held with his Manchester United players ahead of Wednesday's EFL Cup tie against Manchester City to ensure that they knew exactly how important it was to win.

The Red Devils headed into the fourth-round clash still reeling from an embarrassing display against Chelsea three days prior, in which they shipped four times in a disjointed performance.

That setback meant that United had won just one of their previous four games in all competitions when City rolled up at Old Trafford, but Mourinho's men responded well by claiming a 1-0 victory thanks to Juan Mata's second-half strike.

"We spoke about the fans, before the game, between us," Mourinho told MUTV. "To be honest we have short meetings. I don't like to have a meeting of one hour - I prefer to have three or four meetings of 10 minutes, then we have another one a few hours later. We had one of those meetings dedicated to the fans, just thinking about them, their feelings and their disappointment after the Chelsea game.

"We really analysed that part of our lives, because, many times, we just focus on what we have to do professionally and you forget the other side of it. So we had one meeting and the players were really open.

"The players understood clearly that the game against Man City was not just a normal cup match, it was more than that because it was City, but it was even more than that because it was a couple of days after Chelsea. They showed amazing character and I'm really pleased with them."

United are back in Premier League action on Saturday when playing host to Burnley, aiming to improve on their current standing of seventh place in the table.