Jose Mourinho: How my Man Utd team selection helped beat Crystal Palace

JOSE MOURINHO reckons his reshuffle of the Manchester United team was key to beating Crystal Palace.

Jose MourinhoReuters

Jose Mourinho was delighted with his team's display

Mourinho made five changes to the Manchester United side which beat CSKA Moscow on Wednesday night.

Marouane Fellaini was one of five changes made and the Belgian repaid his manager with two goals.

Juan Mata opened the scoring to also justify Mourinho’s selection and the United boss reckons the freshness brought by the likes of Fellaini and Mata was evident compared to Romelu Lukaku and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

He said: “I am happy but I would change this 4-0 for four victories 1-0 but that’s not possible. 

“We were solid and we were strong from the beginning we had control there were some little mistakes, typical from some tired players and playing against a team lacking confidence. 

“We try to change some players and then I think the five made the difference, Valencia, Jones, Fellaini, Mata, Rashford were at a different stage to Lukaku and Mkhitaryan which is normal but the combination worked well and players coming on from the bench also helped and we got the deserve the victory we need. 

“We always expect a striker to score more than the others. They have a lot of freedom to play they can always be in finishing areas, in fact I want them to be, If they score goals it’s a natural consequence of the way we play. 

“I could be happier with the two more points against Stoke.”

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