Paul Pogba has endured a hard return to life at Manchester United and things could be about to get a whole lot trickier – after former Liverpool man Dirk Kuyt revealed he was praised by the world’s most expensive player, as Jose Mourinho’s suffered defeat at the hands of Feyenoord on Thursday.
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But United were no more energised and they paid for their lethargic display in the 79th minute.
I think in the second half the game, in my opinion, we were always in control.
“I think he was like the team”.
“I don’t like to individualise too much”, Mourinho said when asked about Pogba. I know it is not a case of clicking your fingers.
“First of all I have players that are not here, I have players that didn’t play here for 90 minutes, so it’s not a problem of accumulation”, he added.
Stand-in captain Smalling admitted “we didn’t play up to our standards” in Holland and that United can ill-afford another loss when they return to Premier League action at Watford on Sunday.
“When you lose matches, there are no miracles in terms of the players’ soul”, he said.
He told United’s official website: “You win matches and people are happy and full of confidence”. That’s the normal nature of football players.
“I am here not to let them be in a negative mood or in a negative because we lost two matches in four days”. Despite not taking anything from the game they looked likely to be pushed back into an embarrassing defeat for large parts of the first half. Obviously some played better than others but I have to understand that some of these players haven’t played week after week like the other boys.
“But I think today we were very good physically and they didn’t create a lot”.
Kuyt was not the only former Liverpool player in the Feyenoord ranks as goalkeeper Brad Jones helped keep United at bay, while former Aston Villa midfielder Karim El Ahmadi starred at the heart of the side.
Tonny Vilhena scored Feyenoord’s victor late on, despite Nicolai Jorgensen, who delivered the cross, being offside.
The post Mourinho rocked as Feyenoord down United appeared first on Vanguard News.
It was another disappointing performance from world record signing Paul Pogba, but his manger did not want to speak about individual performances.
“We lose the game in a moment we didn’t deserve to”, Mourinho said.
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Astonishingly, Zenit came from 3-0 down to win with four goals in the last 14 minutes – with Luka Djordjevic hitting the victor in injury time.
