Dropping Wayne Rooney had the desired effect for Manchester United on Saturday.
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“His team won, his United won, that’s normal”. “I am very happy for the result and the goal”. “It is not easy to win against them and even more hard to win in such a comfortable way”. Alexis Sanchez, Theo Walcott and Mesut Ozil provided the goals in the first half that gave the Gunners their first win over Chelsea in five years. My team as a team played very well. Normally the second half is better.
“Obviously we all want more from him and the team”.
Mourinho was impressed with his side’s performance and relieved to get back to winning ways. He was sympathetic towards his skipper but the way Jesse Lingard, Juan Mata and Marcus Rashford tore Leicester up might keep Rooney out of the line-up for a while.
Mourinho is still figuring out his team and he’s right that he will have to rotate players, so it would be foolish to make much of Rooney missing out on one match. The first part has been fantastic for the “Red Devils”, who have scored four goals.
No arguments there, Jose.
By the time Rooney came on in the 83rd minute, the contest was done and dusted, and Leicester were just trying to make a game of it.
Speaking after the game, Mourinho insisted he still completely trusts his captain. “He is a good player, I like him a lot”, Mourinho added.
The youngster did try his luck once more later in the game, but the United number one was this time assured of his position and made sure he deflected it out of danger.
The victory was self evidently significant. “He is happy”, Mourinho told Sky Sports after Rooney was limited to a seven-minute substitute appearance at the end of the second half. “I don’t know when my players had for the last time such an impressive performance at half-time”. It is a pity because the first 20 minutes was good but now it is important to clean our minds because now we arrive in the Champions League.
United’s man of the match was Paul Pogba, who had been struggling for form before facing Leicester. Now he wants more of the same.
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“We put pressure on, we pressed very well, we tried to create chances but suddenly we switched off”.
