Jose Mourinho on Sunday had a smile back on his face after his Manchester United side comfortably beat Burnley 2-0 at Turf Moor to end a week of intense scrutiny in positive fashion.
Two first-half goals from Romelu Lukaku put United in firm charge of the game and they could have added more after the break with Paul Pogba missing a penalty.
Mourinho, who demanded respect from the media after Monday last week’s 3-0 home defeat by Tottenham Hotspur, had his name sung throughout the game by United’s supporters.
Photo: Reuters
“I am [delighted] and I think some of you must be disappointed — it would be much better if we lose, but I think the performance was very good and very good from the first ball we touched,” he said. “After 10 minutes we were playing so, so well and we were missing quite easy chances that I had a feeling another Tottenham can happen, but also a feeling that playing this way we have to win. We should have kill[ed] the game much earlier, but the performance was very good, very solid and important.”
Mourinho ended the game going close up to United’s traveling support to show his appreciation for their backing.
The Portuguese said the right attitude for the Burnley match had its roots in the positive way the Old Trafford crowd had responded to the loss to Spurs.
“I think we start winning this match because of Old Trafford after Spurs,” he said. “We lose at home, if the fans react bad, the team loses confidence, the team feels pressure and the next match is more difficult, [but] we lost at home, the fans were amazing and understood the performance was good ... I feel a bit sorry we didn’t score a couple of goals in front of them [at their end] because it would be magic for them.”
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