Jose Mourinho was delighted with the defensive displays of Phil Jones, Eric Bailly and substitute Chris Smalling during Manchester United’s Premier League win over Southampton. Romelu Lukaku’s 20th minute finish from close range was the only goal during a nervy afternoon for United as they managed to hold on for a fifth league victory in six. Bailly and Jones have only conceded two goals as a partnership this season and endured a taxing afternoon as Southampton probed United during their dominant second-half.
Mourinho decided to supplement Bailly and Jones in the second period with Smalling, whose only starts have come in the cup competitions this term, and was delighted with the ‘solidarity’ his players showed during an ‘amazing’ win. “Very good (Bailly and Jones) and also Smalling, we did for 20 minutes what the majority of the Premier League teams are doing, which is to play defensive with five at the back, we did that for 20 minutes. We had chances to kill the game, we had chances to score the second goal, we didn’t.
“And then I honestly felt Southampton strong, I felt the manager enthusiastic, excited, risking, bringing two strikers like Gabbiadini and Austin to play direct to try to do a style that is also not normally their style and then I made the decision to bring on Smalling. “And the team was solid, good solidarity, good organisation, good spirit and amazing points.” United have the same amount of points as Manchester City, who thumped basement club Crystal Palace – United’s next opponents – 5-0 to go top outright on goal difference. Mourinho’s side have recorded three better results than in the corresponding fixtures last season against West Ham, Everton and Southampton but the Portuguese is still reluctant to talk up United’s title challenge.
“I think it’s too early,” Mourinho shrugged. “I know that last season on this fixture I think we would have maybe, I don’t know, five or six points less than this season, so we are better than this season, yes. “But this is nothing, it’s just the start with a difficult period and accumulation of matches has not arrived yet, it’s just the beginning, but in October that comes, it’s going to be really difficult. I really think six teams will fight for the title. “It’s better to win 5-0 than 1-0, that’s obvious, we wanted to win 5-0 but it’s not always possible and today was not possible. In the first-half we had opportunities to score the second goal, and then probably game is different.
“We also had Lukaku and Herrera to score and then if we do that I probably bring Martial or Lingard into the game and try to go for a different result. But today that was not my feeling, my feeling was the game was so difficult, credit to Southampton and to Pellegrino and three points is really important.”
