Jose Mourinho says he was "protecting" Henrikh Mkhitaryan by not playing him at the start of Manchester United's Premier League campaign.

The Armenian is becoming an increasingly important cog in Mourinho's ever-progressing United side, and scored the opener in their 3-0 win over Leicester City on Sunday.

But until late November, the former Borussia Dortmund star was little more than a bit-part player for United, coming on as a late substitute in a handful of games.

Mkhitaryan started in United's 4-1 win over West Ham in the EFL Cup quarter-final in that month, where he bagged two assists, and from there saw his game-time increase.

Jose Mourinho says he was "protecting" Henrikh Mkhitaryan at the start of the season (
Image:
Matthew Peters)

On Sunday he netted for the fifth time this season, and was unsurprisingly a topic of conversation in Mourinho's post-match press conference, which you can see above.

In the clip, the Portuguese explains exactly why Mkhitaryan was slowly introduced to his team.

"Sometimes the best way to protect players is not to play them," said Mourinho.

"I think in your chair, your perspective is always 'if a player is not playing the manager is disturbing him', but this is not true.

The Armenian midfielder scored the opener in Man United's win over Leicester City (
Image:
Laurence Griffiths)
Mkhitaryan has now scored five goals for the Red Devils this season (
Image:
Manchester United via Getty)

"Sometimes we don't play players, we protect them, and Mkhitaryan was one of these cases.

"He was being protected and he was adapting and I can see not just what you see, because you see the magic things he can do on the pitch.

"But I also see other things that I want to see and Mkhitaryan is playing really, really well."

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