Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has suggested that it is often harder to motivate young players due to the amount of money earned during the early stages of their careers.

The United boss has handed surprise opportunities to a number of young players this season, including Josh Harrop and Axel Tuanzebe, leading the coach to admit that sometimes managers need to be lucky with the mentality of the rising talent in their squad.

"In the past you could think about being at the club for the rest of your life," Mourinho said during an interview with BT Sport.

"You became rich at the end of your career. Now they become rich at the beginning of their careers. Yes [that makes the job harder]. You need to be lucky with the players, you need to be lucky with their parents, with the people around them.

"Maybe it's harder to motivate them and harder to make them focused on what they have to do. If they're not the right mentality they can lose a bit of appetite. If they have the right mentality and are rich even better but if you don't have the mentality it makes it hard."

Mourinho's United claimed both the League Cup and Europa League titles during his first term in charge at Old Trafford.