That’s the verdict of Old Trafford great Peter Schmeichel, who believes the Portuguese would have opted for a defensive setup against CSKA Moscow in years gone by.
United visited the VEB Arena on September 27 in the second game of their Champions League group stage campaign.
And they ran out comfortable 4-1 winners thanks to strikes from attacking talents Romelu Lukaku, Anthony Martial and Henrik Mkhitaryan.
Three of United’s goals came in the opening half-hour of their trip to Moscow.
And Schmeichel believes the performance shows Mourinho has altered his approach to away games.
Speaking on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football coverage, Schmeichel said: "I’ve seen changes, he’s already changed.
"For instance the Champions League game in Moscow, you can bet your bottom dollar that two years ago he goes to Moscow and is very defensive.
"But it was a big win and it could have been a bigger win."
Schmeichel’s comments came after he'd discussed United’s 0-0 draw with Liverpool with fellow pundit Jamie Carragher.
Asked about the performance, which has been widely criticised, he said: "In the long run, I would say no [it’s not acceptable].
"But in certain games, yes. You have to look at the circumstances and what time of the year it is.
"All of his players, and that goes for some of the Liverpool players as well, have come back from international duty, they’ve all been travelling, they’ve been in hotels for a very long time.
"It’s nearly nine days that they stay in the camp. As far as Manchester United are concerned, obviously they have to go into a hotel the night before, it’s an early kick-off, and Wednesday night it’s Benfica in Lisbon.
"He’s trying to make it as easy as possible for them so he looks at Liverpool and thinks ‘we can counter these guys, we can exploit some of their weaknesses’."
United are back in Champions League action when they face Benfica at the Estadio da Luz tomorrow night.
