Manchester City’s display in the opening 40 minutes against Manchester United made for “ominous” viewing for the rest of the Premier League, according to Oliver Holt.
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“Look, honestly, I had two or three players in the first half who, if the game was played now and I know what is going to happen, then I wouldn’t play them”, Mourinho said after the game.
“I don’t know if he respects me, but I respect him a lot”, said the former Bayern Munich coach.
“Many predicted a draw, but it was absolutely nothing like I expected”. He is mainly a No9 – if you want to play him in different positions, we need to work him, we need to improve him, but his big personality is there.
Both players were replaced at half-time against Manchester City on Saturday, although it was later suggested that Mkhitaryan may have played with an injury issue. It is just that the only way I can decide my team is on performances.
“If you ask me that now I’m going to analyse this game because I need to analyse this game, no, I’m not going to”, he added.
“The game changed after their goal in the first half we were excellent, after the first 15 minutes in the second half we came back stronger and had to adapt to their style of play”.
After scoring on his debut under Louis van Gaal last season, followed by his gaining his first cap for England, the striker is set to be named in Mourinho’s line-up in the Europa League on Thursday. Especially when you don’t know them so well after a couple of months, it’s too early to know them really well.
Manchester City’s late summer arrival from Barcelona was thrown into the deep end at Old Trafford and can count himself fortunate to finish the game at all, never mind on the winning side. In the first half we were below the level to play this match.
Boss Jose Mourinho agreed a number of players were below-par against Man City.
“The way we train and the way we play has given me a lot of confidence”.
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Rashford was thrown into the action in the second half and produced an impressive cameo appearance.
