“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”.
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The 34-year-old kicked off his Premier League career with United with a typically top drawer 25-yard strike at Bournemouth to ease the Reds to a comfortable 3-1 victory at Dean Court.
One player whose future has been in doubt ever since Mourinho took over at Old Trafford is the much-maligned Marouane Fellaini.
“I thought it was an even game until the first goal, that was the key moment”, he said.
Ibrahimovic, who also scored United’s victor in the Community Shield against Leicester, did not always look comfortable but the 34-year-old former Sweden striker is renowned for producing individual moments of magic. The manager, too, knew, that it being the first goal, was crucial in the game going ahead.
The second-half was where United “kept the ball better” says Fellaini. So we had to control.
This 3-1 win moved United to the top of the Premier League table, and Mourinho re-iterated his promise that United would compete for the title this year, something that they have not done since Sir Alex Ferguson left in 2013. Mourinho said the striker will be “phenomenal” for United and the Premier League as a whole, and doesn’t understand how Ibrahimovic wasn’t able to break the dominance of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in voting for FIFA’s world player of the year.
Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe felt the defensive mistake for the first goal undermined his side after a promising start.
“It was a hard game”, he told Sky Sports.
Fellaini reserved praised for this summer’s new signings at Old Trafford, especially Ibrahimovic and Eric Bailly. The first goal gave us the confidence, we were looking for more and playing very fluent. “He’s played in different leagues throughout Europe and scored in all of them and I’ve no doubt he’ll continue to score for us”.
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“It’s a good victory and an important victory, at a place where we lost three points last season”, Mourinho added. I’ve been playing a long time.
