Mourinho ready to prioritise points over Manchester

Jose Mourinho has claimed that Manchester United will adopt a purely pragmatic approach this season and that his side are “humble enough” to play defensive football when necessary.

United have started their new Premier League campaign in swash- buckling style, scoring four unanswered goals against both West Ham United and Swansea City before a dominant 2-0 win over Leicester City.

Mourinho’s side have looked more fluid going forward in these opening weeks of the season but their manager is prepared to forego such an attacking style of play if needed.

“We try to play the best we can,” Mourinho said on Friday. “We know that if you look in a pragmatic way, you see the last winners of the Premier League [Antonio Conte’s Chelsea], they did not play attacking football.

“They played defensive football and counter-attack football. So according to the results, that is the way to win the Premier League.

Mourinho added: “We try to play according to the qualities of our players. We try to play positive, we try to play good, but we try to win. If one day to win we have to play defensive football, we have to do it.”

United travel to Stoke City for Saturday’s evening kick-off having not won a league fixture at the bet365 Stadium since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013 and Mourinho is ready to “face the reality” should Mark Hughes’ side test his players.

“Tomorrow if we go to Stoke and Stoke in some moments of the match, they put us under pressure and they are dominant, we have to be humble and we have to be pragmatic and we have to face the reality,” he said.

“If you ask me, are we going to go there and play with seven at the back, like some teams do, five plus two? No, we’re not going to do that. We’re going to try and play well and score goals.

“But if our opponent is better than us and dominant, we are humble enough to transform our way of playing to play for a result.”

Mourinho is aiming to win the first four games of a Premier League season for the fourth time, having done so in each of his title-winning seasons with Chelsea (200405, 2005-06 and 2014-15). THE INDEPENDENT