Fellaini was linked with leaving Manchester United when Mourinho arrived and of late a switch to link up with David Moyes at Sunderland has been mooted.
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Mourinho has an embarrassment of riches at his disposal and was unable to unleash his world-record signing Paul Pogba after the former Juventus man carried his suspension from Italy to England.
“With [Marouane] Fellaini I always have the feeling that he was not loved by the general Red people. Luke Shaw, Marcus Rashford. these are the guys who are with him at the table”, Mourinho said of the Swede.
The Cherries defender knocked a weak back pass to Artur Boruc who managed to clear the ball with Juan Mata putting him under pressure, but his clearance struck Francis before rolling back towards the Bournemouth goal which allowed Mata the easiest of tap ins. So he knows what he can be for them.
“What can he be for the team?”
Despite playing in the era of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, Mourinho is perplexed as to why the 34-year-old striker has yet to win a Ballon d’Or award.
“Now we go into our match at Old Trafford against Southampton with two victories in our bag and three points in the Premier League, so hopefully at Old Trafford we will be ready to play”.
Wayne Rooney, operating behind Ibrahimovic in United’s attack, doubled the advantage with a well-taken header on 59 minutes after good work from Antonio Valencia. Bournemouth got a consolation goal 5 minutes later, with Adam Smith scoring for the hosts.
“It was an important goal, a clever goal, a goal by somebody with a natural instinct to play football”, Mourinho said “I know him very well because I worked with him for six months at a previous club”. “We weren’t 100 per cent in the first half, we couldn’t play our game, but we had more space in the second half and could play our game”. “Zlatan had one chance and got one goal which is good for us”.
Following his strike at Bournemouth, he has scored on his debuts in the Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, Ligue 1 and the Champions League.
“We have a very good group with lots of options”. I’m happy with the team. “So we deserved to win”.
Mourinho had high praise for both in his after-match interviews.
“We didn’t need to make a statement”, he added.
“If it’s mathematically not possible one day, we’ll think about top four”. We don’t hide in our words or our approach, so we are going to fight until it’s possible.
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“I hope we will see more goals this season but we have to keep working and keep improving every game and every session”. That would be fine.
