Furious Jose Mourinho to axe 2 Manchester United stars after defeat to Newcastle

Jose Mourinho is so frustrated by Manchester United 's disastrous recent defensive showing against Newcastle he is ready to axe two of the biggest culprits, according to reports.

The Red Devils lost at St James' Park on Sunday to get sucked back into the battle for a top-four berth, with Chris Smalling and Phil Jones singled out for their poor performances – the former dived to give away the free-kick from which Newcastle scored.

And now The Daily Mirror claim Mourinho's misgivings about the duo started long before the defeat to Newcastle and he will ditch them for the FA Cup .

Smalling was booked for his dive, with Newcastle scoring moments later (Picture: Getty)

In their place, Mourinho will give Victor Lindelof and Marcos Rojo the chance to impress in Saturday's match against Huddersfield, and it could be a permanent change.

Mourinho has called on the United board to follow the examples of rivals Man City and Liverpool, who both broke their transfer records to sign Aymeric Laporte and Virgil van Dijk respectively.