THREE AND EASY FOR UNITED
UNITED GET CHAMPIONS LEAGUE CAMPAIGN OFF TO WINNING START – BUT NIGHT MARRED BY INJURY TO POGBA
JOSE Mourinho really is the man with the Midas touch.
Everything the United manager touches turns to gold and he proved it emphatically as the Reds cruised to a 3-0 win against Basel on their return to the Champions League.
With that quality United could soon be changing their opinions on their prematch humble European ambitions.
The last time Marouane Fellaini played Champions League football for United he was absolutely battered by social media.
Twitter destroyed the Belgian after the Reds were knocked out of the group stages in 2015 following a 3-2 defeat in Wolfsburg.
Who’d have ever thought that when UEFA’s elite stage was graced again by United that Fellaini would still be at the club?
Not only is he still at the club but he’s gone from scapegoat to go-to thanks to Mourinho.
Few suspected he’d be his cup of tea especially as much of his spending has been focused on the engine room.
In Mourinho’s pre-Basel match press conference he had been championing the Belgian to ears that were still to be honest slightly disbelieving. “I feel weaker without Fellaini in my squad, doesn’t matter if it’s on the pitch or on the bench,” he said as he gave the medical bulletin on his calf injury.
“If his conditions are improved, he will be selected, I need him.”
Only for the bench, mind you, but Mourinho is certainly a manager with the Midas touch. He manages to turn sow’s ears into silk purses.
He managed to turn the potentially debilitating negative of losing captain Paul Pogba after just 19 minutes to a hamstring injury, into a positive.
United had been precise, crisp and incisive in their passing against Basel but couldn’t create a breakthrough.
Enter Fellaini and a bit of good oldfashioned winger’s cross from Ashley Young and a powerful close range header from Fellaini did the trick. Simple.
The Champions League might seem like the stage that deserves pretty, champagne football but sometimes it takes a less sophisticated style to win the day.
The message had got through and United’s second was a carbon copy with Daley Blind providing the cross for Romelu Lukaku to rise and direct his header home.
Another Belgian had come up trumps for Mourinho.
After losing Zlatan Ibrahimovic it was something of a gamble to put all your eggs in the basket of a striker during the summer who had never appeared in the Champions League group stages before.
Alvaro Morata had plenty of European experience on this stage with Real Madrid and Juventus but Mourinho chose Lukaku just when it looked like the Spaniard was Old Trafford bound.
Lukaku repaid the faith with his debut Champions League goal.
United completed a satisfying return when another Mourinho sub paid off as Marcus Rashford also secured his first goal at this level to make it 3-0.
Mourinho can do no wrong.