Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has accused four of his players of lacking maturity, character and personality.

Mourinho has seen his future come under intense scrutiny following a poor start to the season which has seen his side lose four of their opening 12 games to already sit 12 points adrift of leaders Manchester City.

However, the Portuguese boss believes that "spoilt kids" have contributed to United's troubles and claimed that Luke Shaw, Anthony Martial, Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford are all struggling to fulfil their potential.

"They are lacking maturity. And let me be clear when I say maturity, I mean maturity on a personal level. We had more men, we were more mature, we were more prepared for life, we were less protected," Mourinho told Univision.

"They are spoilt kids now, the kids of today have a different life, an easier environment and I'm talking about the people around the players. These people give them too much affection and too many excuses. People mature much more slowly now.

"Luke Shaw, he's got big potential but doesn't know how to behave. Big potential, yes, big potential. We're talking about Luke Shaw, Martial, Lingard, Rashford – young, big potential, but at the end of the day it results in the word I cannot say, but you use it a lot here... character, personality, they lack a little."

United are back in action when they host Crystal Palace at Old Trafford on Saturday.