Return of the Mc
Manchester United manager agrees that Scott McTominay had a fantastic performance, and my answer would be yes, he had a fantastic performance.
“He looked a senior player, a player with great maturity, with tactical sense, with a sense of responsibility, good in possession, good in pressing.
He looked like a man with dozens and dozens of matches in the Champions League when this is only the second one (in the starting XI). A fantastic player – Ever Banega –wasn’t, because he didn’t have the space to be the Banega that all of football admires. He stopped him playing.”
Having answered a question nobody asked, Mourinho then applied himself to assessing Pogba’s performance, which he did in less gushing terms.
Pogba played most of the game anyway, being sent on after just 17 minutes when injury forced Herrera off.
The French star played his part in a typically cautious, backs-to-thewall away European performance from Mourinho’s side. But, tellingly, he later refused to stop for journalists in the mixed zone of the Sanchez Pizjuan.
“Paul made a big effort to try to give the team what I asked of them,” insisted Mourinho.
“He gave us stability. For a match away to Sevilla we had a good percentage of the ball, and I think Paul had responsibility for that.”
The injury to Herrera came after the Spaniard had been passed fit to return from a hamstring injury that had kept him out of United’s previous three games.
He could now face another untimely spell on the sidelines, with United’s programme including Premier League games against Chelsea and Liverpool before the Sevilla second leg on March 13.
“The medical department gave him fully fit. On the pitch he showed the intensity that is only possible if you are fully fit,” Mourinho said.
“Then it was a back-heel and a back-heel creates a contraction in the muscular area where he had the biggest problem, and now we have proof that he was not 100% fit.”
Mourinho said the scoreline “reflected what the game was”, despite the Old Trafford side managing just one shot on target all evening.
Sevilla created almost all of the chances, but could not find a way past an inspired David de Gea, who made two stunning saves from Steven N’Zonzi and Luis Muriel late in the first half.
“Even with a couple of mistakes the team defended well,” Mourinho said. “When we made the mistakes David was obviously there and that is the reason why he is what he is.”
United are hoping to reach the quarterfinals for the first time since 2014, while Sevilla have never made it past the last 16 of the Champions League in three attempts in the last decade.
Their coach Vincenzo Montella believes his side have a good chance of progressing, despite struggling recently in big matches away from home.
“I think this Sevilla have to always play to score and try to be superior to our opponents,” said the Italian.
“It is not always possible but that is what we have to do, and play to win.” – AFP