‘When our main striker is Zlatan, we need fast people surrounding him, ‘ said Mourinho, who had lost his two previous Premier League games. I say one thing – it is at the end, at the end we will see.
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“His team won, his United won”.
‘I don’t know [if it was his best game since returning from Juventus] I think he played okay against Southampton, he played okay against Hull City, ‘ said Mourinho.
They were 4-0 down at half-time and so well beaten that manager Claudio Ranieri withdrew key duo Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez with Tuesday’s Champions League clash with Porto in mind.
“He is a big player for me, a big player for United and a big player for this country”, Mourinho told Sky Sports. The France midfielder headed in United’s fourth goal and was influential in much of their buildup play.
“It is not easy against them and not easy to win in the style that we did”, he added.
“They’re not 100 per cent as I always think this hard moment where you really feel that you have to win the match I prefer to go with players who are 100 per cent ready by the physical point of view and mental point of view”.
“I have to analyse this odd match because we start very well”, Ranieri said.
The “Einstein” in the Manchester United dug-out got the right combination on the pitch here Saturday.
The decision to drop the Englishman was not all that unpredictable, with Mourinho himself admitting before the game that the performances of the Man United skipper had dipped.
“But they were so clever with the corners”. The process starts with playing well in spaces and the last thing you achieve is to play well consistently. All 10 outfield players were involved in the build-up before the Spaniard produced just the sort of third-man run that used to be United’s trademark – having that trust in a team-mate that the ball would come eventually.
With Ander Herrera also preferred to Marouane Fellaini in the centre of midfield alongside Paul Pogba, Mourinho’s side looked more like the vintage United who regularly trampled their opponents at Old Trafford under manager Alex Ferguson.
“Because I know the rules of the game”.
“You score four goals but your striker doesn’t score a goal and yet I think the striker played phenomenal. I hope that is not going to be the last”, Pogba said.
“We started to try to do something but alone, not as a team”. We were very focused, we knew it was gong to be hard and we showed a very big performance today.
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Leaders Manchester City beat Swansea 3-1 to make it a ideal 10 victories under Pep Guardiola, including six in the Premier League, as they recorded their best start to a top-flight campaign.
