Jose Mourinho reflects on hard-fought Man Utd win
Jose Mourinho acknowledged that his Manchester United side were nowhere near their best despite recording a 1-0 win at Southampton on Saturday.
Romelu Luakku scored the only goal of the game at St Mary’s, while Mourinho was sent to the stands for ‘entering the field of the play’ late in the game.
Following the match, which sees United remain second in the Premier League table behind rivals City on goal difference, the United chief said: “It is not always possible to operate at high quality but we fought hard.
“We did what many teams in the Premier League do for 90 minutes, which was play with five defenders at the back.
“Credit to Southampton, they tried to play. Pellegrino changed the team and sent on another striker to play more direct.
“It was a hard game but I am really happy.
“Romelu Lukaku’s work is so important for us. He scored his goal and worked hard like everybody else.
“Nobody feels the pressure to play always attacking football because so many teams play always defensively.
“I felt some of the boys were not sharp. I didn’t feel like we could score three or four goals like we sometimes do so the option was to make sure we got the points.”