Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has refused to criticise his players following their penalty-shootout defeat to Stoke City in the League Cup.

The Blues lost the match 5-4 on pens after a 1-1 draw at the ​Britannia Stadium, but the Portuguese insisted that his team's level of effort was not the problem.

"Losing 1-0 feeling the situation against an experienced opponent... the team did everything. I tried to help too," BBC Sport quotes him as saying. "We try, we try, we try. When we scored the goal it was no more than we deserved."

Mourinho went on to hit out at the press for writing negatively about his under-performing Chelsea side.

He added: "What the players did tonight is face some people that write and speak, and said, 'You are stupid'.

"What some people write and say is really bad for the players. Maybe they think my players are like them when they were players. My players don't do that, they tried everything.

"If anyone saw the second half the other day, playing with 10 men the way they did, it's a lack of respect for the players."

Reports suggest that Mourinho could be out of a job if Chelsea lose to Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool in the Premier League this weekend.