Jose Mourinho was left a happy man after Manchester United trounced Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 on Sunday in the Premier league as he praised the players’ performance, solidarity and defensive role.
According to the team’s website, Mourinho was relieved to have edged bitter rivals Tottenham Hotspur.” “We have been playing so well but not getting results. We needed the result today, even if the performance could be not as good as the others. But that was not the case. I think the performance was even better than the others because we were playing against a very good team. A team that, for me, is the one that I prefer in the Premier League because of the way they play football, defensively and offensively. So even more credit to the players for that”, he said in an interview with Manchester United TV.
Mkhitryan ‘s goal was scintillating that Mourinho thought the player should have been voted the man of the match. “We recovered the ball high up the pitch, we were objective with that transition and counter attack, we scored a fantastic goal and it was so important for us in the end. But once more, the goalkeeper [Hugo Lloris] was not the Man of the Match, because Mkhitaryan deserved that, but he could have been too… and also the post! For the way we play, we don’t deserve to suffer, we don’t deserve to arrive in the last 30 minutes with our hearts in our hands. We deserved to be enjoying the match and we cannot enjoy the match when we are under pressure”, he said.
He also ruled out a quick return for Mkhitaryan who was injured during the match.”It looks like the next match is a no, but it looks like it is nothing that is really dangerous or that needs surgery, so hopefully we will probably have Micki on Boxing Day [against Sunderland]”, he revealed.
He praised his defense for putting a solid defense as they did not coincided a goal during the tense match. “The team was very good, the effort was by everyone. The way we defended set-pieces was a team effort. I think it is fair to say that Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo were magnificent and obviously surrounded by a team that is organised with a big solidarity, giving everything to keep a clean sheet that gave us points”, he said.
Mourinho still got hope that they are in the run for a good finish in the league.”Now we are sixth in the table, our position didn’t change, but we reduced three points from Tottenham and from Manchester City. So it was not a bad weekend for us, especially because our match at home was one of those when a draw would be something normal, according to the projection of both teams”, he stated.
“I want to dedicate this victory to Fellaini because he deserves it,” Mourinho told Sky Sports. “In the last match [Everton], it was him that was involved in the loss of two points [conceding a penalty] and that’s why I want to make it clear he is an important player for me.”
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