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Jose Cuts to the chase

Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho says he wants to see his team concede the first goal in a match

JOSE MOURINHO cannot wait to see his Manchester United side go a goal down after their perfect start to the season.

The Portuguese boss is determined to keep a lid on soaring expectations after his team followed up their opening-day win against West Ham with another 4-0 victory at Swansea.

 Jose Mourinho's side have had a brilliant start to the season
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Jose Mourinho's side have had a brilliant start to the seasonCredit: Getty Images - Getty
 The Red Devils thrashed Swansea 4-0 at the Liberty Stadium
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The Red Devils thrashed Swansea 4-0 at the Liberty StadiumCredit: AFP or licensors AFP or licensors

And Mourinho claimed he will only know how good his players really are when they find themselves chasing a game.

He said: “The thing I want to happen is for the team to be losing so I can see the way we react emotionally.

“At this moment everything is going in our favour, but it is not always going to be a motorway.

“You can always find difficult journeys and road blocks and we have to be ready for that.

“It has not happened so far, but going a goal behind will be a different challenge and I want to see how these players try to change a result. Let’s see how we are when we are in difficulties, when we need the last minutes to win matches.

“Of course I am happy with the way we have started the season and the quality of our performances has given me even more confidence.

 Jose Mourinho has won his first two league matches of the season 4-0
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Jose Mourinho has won his first two league matches of the season 4-0Credit: AFP

“But I don’t forget that we started last season with six points from our first two matches and still finished sixth.

“That is not a lesson. It’s the reality of football. Two wins are not paradise, just as two defeats are not the end of the world.”

Three goals in a four-minute burst from Romelu Lukaku, Paul Pogba and Anthony Martial sealed another comfortable win for United after Eric Bailly had fired the visitors ahead with his first goal for the club.

Mourinho added: “For 75 minutes it was 1-0 and the result was still open.

“But I always felt we had the game under control and my team was confident to be ahead without worrying about defending the lead. You could see that in my body language.

“In both our games so far we were 1-0 ahead at half-time and we didn’t go out looking just to keep a clean sheet.

“We always look to control the game by keeping the ball and scoring more goals.

“We have many players on the bench with great quality who make it easy for me to make changes and react to any formation our opponent tries against us.”

 Jose Mourinho pointed out the fact his side have been leading at half-time in their opening games
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Jose Mourinho pointed out the fact his side have been leading at half-time in their opening gamesCredit: AFP or licensors AFP or licensors
 Manchester United have kept clean sheets in their opening two games
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Manchester United have kept clean sheets in their opening two gamesCredit: Reuters

Mourinho shrugged off claims Pogba could have received a second yellow card for a first-half foul on Martin Olsson, minutes after he had been booked for clattering Tom Carroll.

He said: “The referee had given the impression he wasn’t giving out yellow cards and was happy just to speak with the players, which he did earlier when there was a foul on Nemanja Matic.

“So I was surprised when he didn’t do the same thing with Paul, but I was never worried.

“Paul just wants to enjoy his football, to do good things and show quality in his play. But sometimes he tries to do more difficult things than he should.”

 Jose Mourinho disagreed with claims Paul Pogba could have received a second yellow
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Jose Mourinho disagreed with claims Paul Pogba could have received a second yellowCredit: Reuters

Pogba admitted: “The first challenge was a yellow card but I was not worried about the second one because it was not a foul.

“The ref talked to me about it and I laughed at him because it would have been hard if we had a red card for that.”

Even Swansea boss Paul Clement admitted: “It would have been harsh if he’d been sent off.

“I have seen them given, and a red card would certainly have helped us, but it wasn’t the reason we lost today.”



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