Mourinho wins first game for United
Youngsters Will Keane and Andreas Pereira got the Jose Mourinho era off to a winning start as Manchester United beat Wigan Athletic 2-0 in a pre-season friendly with summer signings Eric Bailly and Henrikh Mkhitaryan making good debuts.
It took only three minutes for the first goal to come, when Juan Mata blocked a poor Jussi Jasskelainen clearance into Keane’s path, who slotted home into an empty net.
Minutes later fellow sub Pereira doubled the lead with a thumping shot on the turn and the Red Devils were rarely troubled thereafter as the Special One opened up in perfect fashion.
The strength of United’s squad was evident as Mourinho watched them canter to victory against Championship opposition despite missing 14 players still on their break following Euro 2016 and Copa America.
Manchester United’s new manager used all 22 players at his disposal with £30million defender Bailly the last of the outfield starters to be taken off after 82 minutes.
Wigan didn’t have enough to scare United even Will Grigg wasn’t on fire but Mourinho will have considered it a good day at the office.
He will have to prune some of United’s large squad but with the likes of David de Gea, Chris Smalling Anthony Martial, Wayne Rooney, Marcus Rashford and Zlatan Ibrahimovic to return, they do seem to have the strength in depth to improve significantly on last season’s fifth place.
Youngsters Tyler Blackett and Guillermo Varela came on later in the second half to emphasise the point they weren’t even training with the first team during Mourinho’s first week at Carrington.