UNITED Mourinho’s praise for reaction of ‘fantastic’ supporters
JOSE Mourinho says the United supporters were ‘fantastic’ during the win over Brighton.
The Reds boss has regularly questioned the atmosphere inside Old Trafford this season in his programme notes and at his press conferences.
The Portuguese accused the crowd of being ‘quiet’ in the match against Leicester in August, suggested the ‘noisy’ supporters were on holiday for one game and chastised certain fans’ reaction during the victory over Tottenham last month, when some booed his decision to replace Marcus Rashford.
The Manchester United Supporters’ Trust hoped to meet Mourinho to discuss the issue, but the boss declined earlier this month. After United’s most testing home game this season, Mourinho admitted he was ‘surprised’ at how supportive the fans were against Brighton.
“I’m happy with the three points, I’m happy with the attitude of the team that didn’t play well and the attitude of the team that didn’t play well is very important,” Mourinho said. “And honestly, it is quite a surprise for me but I think the supporters were fantastic.
“We’ve had matches at home where we’ve played really, really well and they were a bit soft and today they were behind the team. The team was not playing well, the team was 0-0, they support the team, they support the players, then in the last part of the game, at home, at Old Trafford, we felt problems against Brighton and the supporters were behind the team.
“They support the team, they support the players, so also really happy with them.”
The Old Trafford boss revealed that he wanted to substitute Paul Pogba during the match but felt it was too risky against Chris Hughton’s side. “Honestly, I think Paul played very well,” Mourinho said. “But even Paul didn’t manage to be fully in control.
“So even with Paul we were a little bit in trouble.
“But Paul again played very well, against Basel he played very well, today again. “And I wanted to take him out of the game but I felt the points were still there, to fight for them and I knew in the last part of the game they would bring the fear and play long balls and I thought that Fellaini would be important.
“But Paul was also important because you could see in the last part of the game he was one of the guys who kept the ball, who kept possession of the ball, brought the ball into corners and tried to win a few seconds of possession away from our goal. So Paul was good.” Jose Mourinho