Mourinho impressed by United’s quality of play despite drawn outcome against Stoke City

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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Jose Mourinho felt Manchester United’s 1-1 draw against Stoke City at Old Trafford was one of the better performances put up by the club since his recent takeover as manager. Joe Allen’s finish from two yards out equalised Anthony Martial’s terrific curler, as both teams took home a point each.

“I'm very happy with the performance but when the result should be five or 6-0 and it's 1-1 then the happiness disappears and the frustration with the result comes,” Mourinho said.

“But I think it was but best performance in terms of the football we played, the creation, the chances, the consistency, we did that for 90 minutes.”

United controlled most of the match, with almost 66 per cent ball possession and 20 attempts, half of which were destined for goal, with an opportunity for Zlatan Ibrahimovic as early as the second minute of the match.

“We start in the first minute with a big chance and we finish in the last minute with another one, and in between these two chances we had four, five, six or seven, complete control of the game, a great attitude after the 1-0,” the former Chelsea boss told the media after the game.

“Because after the 1-0 the team wanted to kill the game and felt so confident and kept creating chances and then by magic they crossed the midfield line and scored the goal. Which is obviously very unfair on us. In this moment we should not have just the three points but with a fat result and we go with one point,” he added.

The Red Devils had beaten Champions Leicester City 4-1 last week with all of United’s goals coming in the dominant first half.

“Today they (United) played very well. They did it against Leicester but the result was bigger than the performance on Thursday, against a defensive team like Stoke, the team kept very calm and moved the ball well,” Mourinho explained.

Today was the best performance. From minute one everything was beautiful. The first chance is beautiful football, the one that Paul missed in the first-half is also beautiful football.

Jose Mourinho

Spanish midfielder Ander Herrera echoed his manager’s sentiments, stating that on a different day the red half of Manchester would have run out 6-0 winners.

While speaking to MUTV after the match, Herrera said, “We cannot believe we did not win this game. I think we played even better than against Leicester as we created maybe 10 or 11 chances in front of their goalkeeper (Lee Grant). He was their best player and that says everything. I think our fans can be proud as we did everything and tried to win.

“This is football. I believe, when you play good, you have more chances to win. I have that thought you should play good if you want to win but this time it was not like that. I hope this is not going to happen again.

“When we play as well as we did, we can win maybe 6-0 or 7-0. It was unbelievable we did not win, but I cannot say too much. I don't know what to say to our fans but we have to accept it and keep working,” concluded the 2014 FA Cup winner.

Stoke City manager Mark Hughes said his team were comfortable after scoring the equaliser and also accused United of playing long balls into the box as they ran out of ideas.

“I don't think there was any real sustained momentum in United's play apart from the last five minutes when they were whacking ball into the box, which we dealt with comfortably,” said the former Manchester United striker.

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