I Want To Play Fellaini With Pogba – Mourinho

Jose Mourinho agreed he may have played with too many attackers as Manchester United laboured to a thin 1-0 victory over Brighton at Old Trafford.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if today some of the pundits say we play with too many attackers. I wouldn’t be surprised,” Mourinho told a news conference. “But if they say that, I think they were right. Sometimes you play with too many attacking players and you lose control of the game. We had a few problems defensively because [Nemanja] Matic and Pogba, they were a bit isolated in the centre of the park.

“If you compensate that with more creation, that’s good, that’s a good risk. Against Newcastle, it was good because we were not very solid defensively but we were really strong in creation. Today our creation was poor.

“The three players that played with Lukaku, they didn’t get the ball, nor successful on the one against one. Marcus didn’t have a happy match at all. So we didn’t have creation.”

“We didn’t play well,” said the United manager. “The good thing for me was the intensity was higher in the second half in search of the goal and then after the goal we couldn’t kill the game.

“In the last 20 minutes I saw a humble team with everybody trying to play for the clean sheet and giving everything, and people like Lukaku playing wide on the left and chasing defenders.

“So I am happy with the attitude but I have to praise a team and a manager who were playing in the Championship a few months ago, and they were the team who gave us the most problems.”

One positive for Mourinho was a first 90 minutes for Pogba following his return from a two-month absence with a hamstring injury. But with another game at Watford to come on Tuesday, the 54-year-old conceded the Frenchman’s match fitness is a concern.

He said: “It is hard for me to be on the bench and don’t know when Pogba has to be changed. I want to play [Marouane] Fellaini early, I want to play Fellaini with Pogba, then I don’t know if Pogba is happy to be on the pitch under the fatigue line, or if the fatigue has reached the line. It’s hard for me to be on the bench with these dilemmas.”