Luk, no Pog ..but we still did the job
JOSE MOURINHO praised “cold” Romelu Lukaku as Manchester United saw off Huddersfield last night. The striker scored twice to send the Reds – playing without bed-ridden Paul Pogba (below) – through to the last eight against Brighton. Belgium forward Lukaku found the net before and after the break while Juan Mata had a goal disallowed for offiside by the VAR system when he looked level. Referring to the clinical nature of the goals, Mourinho said: “Good counter-attacks, twice attacking the space well. Twice cold in front of
SIR ALEX FERGUSON once said he wouldn’t sell Real Madrid a virus. Perhaps Jose Mourinho will.
With stories surfacing that Paul Pogba is unhappy with the hard-knock life of Mourinho’s Manchester United boot camp, followed by suggestions that the European champions are circling, the £89million man could not have picked a worse moment to go sick.
Less than 24 hours earlier, his manager had stated his defiant intention to play Pogba in the FA Cup at Huddersfield.
The Portuguese then got himself even further on the front foot by dismissing all talk of a rift as a “big lie.”
He wouldn’t have been impressed when he got an earlymorning message that Pogba would spend the day tucked up in bed. At least Mourinho got the tonic of a place in the quarter-finals, two goals by Romelu Lukaku ensuring that there would be no repeat of the drama of United’s last visit to the John Smith’s Stadium in October.
But claims that Pogba is struggling in his second season at Old Trafford are unlikely to go away until the Frenchman starts delivering value for money. The irony is that an attempt by United’s media team to explain his absence only gave the conspiracy theorists more ammunition.
The official line from Old Trafford was that Pogba had been taken ill overnight.
There’s the rub. An official statement. Posted on United’s Twitter account more than six hours before Mourinho was due to send his team into combat.
This is Manchester United. The club that could give Kim Jong Un lessons in state secrecy.
Fergie was hard-faced enough to ban journalists if they had the professionalism to tell tales that would alert opposition managers to sensitive team information.
Yet now – presumably with Mourinho’s permission – United were telling David Wagner not to bother planning for the Premier League’s most expensive player.
And it was hardly a ‘get well soon’ message that Mourinho sent to his ailing No.6 before the game. “I don’t care,” said the Special One, when asked for a deeper explanation into what the club doctor had written on Pogba’s sicknote. “I focus on the game. I will think about Paul after the match.”
It will be interesting to see what he thinks about his social media-loving midfielder being fit enough to send his team-mates a good luck Tweet.
Huddersfield haven’t lifted the Cup for 96 years – and the last time they reached the last eight Bobby Charlton was still playing. Their wait goes on.
Lukaku scored last-minute goals in both wins over Derby and Yeovil that took United into round five. But last night he was in a hurry to book a place in the quarter-final.
Just 157 seconds were on the clock when Lukaku swapped passes with Juan Mata, shrugged off Chris Schindler, and sent Jonas Lossl tumbling one way with a glance towards the far corner before beating the Town keeper at the opposite post.
Huddersfield’s response was good. They lost out to one VAR decision when Chris Smalling handled, but they got a break just before the interval when Mata walked Ashley Young’s pass beyond Lossl to score.
The assistant referee’s flag stayed down as Schindler appealed for offside, but the decision was left to Neil Swarbrick in his London studio.
It took a full two minutes for the verdict to come back: No goal. Maybe Mata will shave his legs next week because that’s how tight it was. Graham Poll even suggested that Swarbrick had got it right more by good judgement than the power of technology.
United would not be denied. Ten minutes after the break and Lukaku was celebrating his 20th goal of a season that’s had its share of peaks and troughs.
Alexis Sanchez had spent most of the evening showing the kind of selfless toil that Mourinho is demanding from Pogba.
But when the Chilean new boy led a lightening United breakaway, he also had the quality to spring Lukaku through the middle with a glorious pass.
The Belgian striker didn’t make any mistake. Back in Manchester, his big mate would have felt much better.
Claims that Frenchman Pogba is struggling will not go away until he starts to deliver value for money