He covered every blade of grass.
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“The first 20 minutes we started very slowly”.
Mourinho added about the Frenchman: “He was fantastic”.
Mourinho suggested ahead of the game that the 23-year-old was unlikely to feature for the full 90 minutes, but the France worldwide nonetheless remained on the pitch right until the final whistle as he impressed in midfield.
Mourinho also reserved words of praise for Pogba’s midfield partner Marouane Fellaini.
“I have so many good players”, Mourinho said. The more organised the team is, the easier it is for players to feel confident.
Paul Pogba on his second Manchester United debut against Southampton. I’m sure he is happy at everything getting settled so he can focus on playing for this great club. But it is the second game in the Premier League and basically a lot of things are new.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Paul Pogba, Eric Bailly and Zlatan Ibrahimovic have arrived from fees ranging from nothing to record breaking. After that I felt better.
“But we need to be fighting for titles and I think they’ve got a good chance this year, I really do”.
The midfielder went on to say that he is “happy for the win” and hopes to “carry on like this” as the team try and build some momentum this season as winning is “all we can do”.
He opened the scoring with a towering header in the 36th minute and slotted a penalty shortly after half-time to follow up his debut strike against Bournemouth last weekend. “It was interesting seeing that when Thierry asked him about his qualities and he doesn’t actually know his best qualities”, Giggs told Sky Sports. “We need to get used to winning because the mental part is also important, not only the physical part”.
“Always”, Ibrahimovic said in a TV interview after the match.
For Southampton, who had won their last two trips to United 1-0, it was a disappointing evening that saw new boss Claude Puel left with just a point after two games.
Had that have been allowed, and the penalty not followed, the outcome might have been very different.
United was more than happy to let Southampton have the bulk of possession – a rarity for United in recent years – and played more directly in attack when they do have the ball in the first half, continuing the theme of a more cautious first half. The picture for me, outside of the pitch and in the media, is that people judge me before they know me.
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“The second goal was also hard to take just at the start of the second half. We’re becoming better and better”, he said.
