Mourinho shows ‘love’ for his boss
Jose Mourinho dedicated Manchester United’s 2-0 victory at Burnley to beleaguered executive Ed Woodward as his club returned to winning ways in an incident-packed clash at Turf Moor.
The United manager also claimed Marcus Rashford had been naive in being shown a straight red card, just 10 minutes after appearing as a 60th minute substitute, following his headbutt on Phil Bardsley.
By that stage, United were comfortably in front thanks to two goals from Romelu Lukaku and could even afford the luxury of a missed Paul Pogba penalty, won by Rashford following a foul by Ben Mee, and saved by Joe Hart.
But, given the delicate political situation at Old Trafford currently, the afternoon was as notable for events off the field as on them.
Before kick-off, supporters had paid for a small plane to fly over the ground, towing a banner that read: “Ed Woodward, a specialist in failure”.
But while Mourinho praised the United fans, who supported their players after the shock 3-0 home defeat to Tottenham on Monday, he also offered a hint of support for Woodward.
“In the match I’m not looking at the sky, unless I’m asking for the guy to give me help!” joked Mourinho. Despite the pre-match protest, and supporters clearly siding with their manager in any dispute between him and Woodward, the afternoon should have been a routine one after Lukaku scored twice in the first half.
After 26 minutes he rose powerfully to head in an Alexis Sanchez cross before he reacted sharply following a deflected Jesse Lingard shot and swept the ball in from six yards.
Mourinho claimed that Pogba will remain United’s penalty taker, despite his miss.
The closing stages should have seen Lukaku claim a hat-trick, as he twice missed one-on-ones when clean through. –