Mourinho hails Pogba’s comeback
This had looked like being a troubled evening for Manchester United but, from cutting an anxious figure on the touchline, Jose Mourinho was ultimately able to sit back and relax from his seat in the dug-out and, in his words, “really enjoy the quality and beauty of our football”.
The gap to Manchester City remains eight points but Mourinho has the cavalry back and, perhaps no less significantly, appears willing to loosen the shackles a little as he bids to hunt down the Premier League leaders.
Paul Pogba proved just how sorely he has been missed on a liberating first appearance for 10 weeks and Mourinho’s joy at having his midfield talisman back was matched only by the sight of Zlatan Ibrahimovic making his return from the substitutes’ bench after seven months out with a cruciate knee ligament injury. “It was a big emotion to see the big guy back,” the manager said. Ibrahimovic was given a hero’s welcome when he came on the pitch with 13 minutes left and, in that short time, did enough to suggest that, even at 36, such a serious injury is unlikely to have done any lasting damage. “It feels special, a different day, same quality,” the Swede said. “It is my head that is playing, my knee just needs to follow. I am not worried at all. Lions don’t recover like humans.”
United had defended like lambs to begin with. Newcastle led through Dwight Gayle and asked numerous questions of a makeshift back four, and Victor Lindelof in particular, but Rafael Benitez’s side were eventually swept aside by the sheer relentlessness of Mourinho’s attacking arsenal.
While no one should or could underestimate the influence of the returning Pogba, Mourinho’s decision to start Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial in tandem for the first time in the Premier League this season was uplifting. “We found them a certain balance, but we felt a bit of instability in our defensive areas, so to play them together gives us things but also takes some things from us,” Mourinho said.
It certainly makes United better to watch, although Pogba was United’s driving force. Mourinho called him “irreplaceable” and in terms of the impact the Frenchman has on the team and the individuals around him, that is hard to disagree with. Once they had recovered from a poor first half-hour, United were unrecognisable going forward from the cautious unit of late. Lukaku, in particular, looked the happiest and hungriest he has been for weeks, clearly delighted to have his friend and creative fulcrum back.
His goal was his first in eight matches for United. “Strikers like to score goals,” said Mourinho. “It’s not a problem for me if he works like he always does and doesn’t score but for their self-esteem and self-confidence, strikers want to score goals and he wasn’t doing that for a few matches. So I was really happy that he scored that goal.”
City’s victory over Leicester earlier in the day had left United with no margin for error but they certainly made life difficult for themselves and, even after coming from behind to take a 2-1 lead into the interval, were grateful Newcastle made a hash of a golden opportunity to draw level with seconds of the first half to play.
Mourinho was without his first choice centre-half pairing of Eric Bailly and Phil Jones and it showed. Lindelof ’s Premier League career had amounted to 68 minutes before this and if he was hoping to make a better fist of things on his first league start than he had in the 2-1 defeat against Huddersfield, when he was at fault for both goals, his wish was short-lived.
Gayle laid the ball off to DeAndre Yedlin on the right and Yedlin charged down the line and cut inside before having the awareness to pull the ball back for the advancing Gayle. Lindelof should have intercepted, but got his feet in a muddle, stumbled and watched embarrassed from the deck as Gayle stroked a fine first-time finish from 10 yards across David de Gea’s reach and in off the far post. Newcastle should have been two goals to the good before the home team hit back when Jonjo Shelvey sent in Jacob Murphy with a stunning pass but the Newcastle winger shot just wide of the far post.
It was no surprise that Pogba spearheaded the comeback. A quick shuffle of the feet bamboozled Javier Manquillo in the 36th minute, Pogba carving enough space for him to clip over a delightful cross for Martial to thump home a header.
Newcastle needed to get to the interval level but Ashley Young wriggled free and whipped a pinpoint cross to the far post that looped over Florian Lejeune and Manquillo and on to the head of Smalling to nod home. Benitez’s frustration was compounded moUnited ments later when Isaac Hayden, through one-on-one with David De Gea, shot straight at the goalkeeper, and thereafter it was one-way traffic.
The third goal was a minor classic. Mata fed Lukaku, who whipped over a fine cross that Rashford cleverly nodded into the path of Pogba, to slot home. “He affects our football,” Mourinho said of Pogba. “When he was injured, I decided to close my mouth, we cannot be crying, but we all know – myself, and the fellow players – that some players influence the level of the team, so with him we had much more creation, we have a second way out from the first phase and I’m so happy. He’s a player we need to protect.”
Three became four when Lukaku cut inside from the right, exchanging a one-two with Mata and then taking his time before thundering a shot into the roof of the net. Then Ibrahimovic entered the fray. This was a very good day for Mourinho.