Manchester United vs Fenerbahce: Jose Mourinho mocks the 'Einsteins' who claimed Paul Pogba was 'the worst'

Manchester United manager poured scorn on Paul Pogba’s critics on Thursday night, insisting after the Frenchman scored against Fenerbahce that media “Einsteins” had turned him from worst to best player in the Premier League inside 48 hours.

Though Juan Mata was the stand-out player in a 4-1 win over the Turks, Pogba scored an impressive strike on the stroke of half time and Mourinho insisted that he must be given time to adapt to the Premier League.

“He goes from the worst player in the Premier League a great player in 48 hours. I say media especially the Einsteins,” Mourinho said. “We know he is a very good player and he needs sometime to show his potential. Other leagues are different to the Premier League. I’m not saying we are better but different: different in the number of touches you can have on the ball and time to decide.

“He is a self-confident boy, not the kind of boy who [gets] depressed because some people were saying he was a bad player. I don’t say tomorrow makes a difference but it is always nice for a player to score at home.”

Mourinho said that Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who he still does deem ready for a start, must do further work to increase his intensity to Premier League levels

“He has to work more to get the intensity and fitness to play at a high level,“ he said of the Armenian. “The situation is that we played with [Jesse] Lingard, with [Juan] Mata and [Anthony] Martial. I am not an Einstein. I don’t know a tactical system that can play with four wingers at the same time. He has to work more to get the intensity and fitness to play at a high level. [Rather than] to have him on the bench and give him 15 or 20 minutes like I did to Memphis, I think it is much better for him to work yesterday much harder and he did today in a specific session and wait for his chance but he is ready very soon.”

Though Mourinho made seven changes from Monday’s draw at Liverpool, starting with Wayne Rooney for the first in a month, he insisted he did not have Sunday’s visit to Chelsea in mind. “They are independent matches,” he said. “I choose this team because I felt it was the team to win it and because I felt after such an intense game on Monday that some of these players would be in better conditions to perform than others but I start thinking about Chelsea tomorrow.

“Am I happy with the performance? Yes. Am I happy with individual performances? Yes and I am happy with the result which is the most important because the result is difficult. We put ourselves in a difficult position by losing the first match especially as we have the double match with Fenerbahce. To go to Istanbul without winning this match would be even more difficult.”