Wigan Athletic vs Manchester United: Jose Mourinho praises 'top-class' Henrikh Mkhitaryan after debut win
Wigan Athletic 0 Manchester United 2: The Portuguese was impressed by how quickly his new players have picked up his instructions in training
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Your support makes all the difference.Jose Mourinho heaped praise on "top-class" new signing Henrikh Mkhitaryan after Manchester United's procession to victory over Wigan Athletic at the DW Stadium.
The Portuguese handed starts to Mkhitaryan and Eric Bailly, both new recruits, as Will Keane and Andreas Pereira struck in the second-half to give an experimental United line-up reason to be optimistic ahead of the trip to China next week.
But it was Mkhitaryan, signed from Borussia Dortmund for £26m this month, who offered the most reliable and exciting source of creativity during a 45 minute debut on an otherwise low-key afternoon in the north west.
Mourinho said: "Mkhitaryan is a top-class player and currently at the best stage for a footballer – 27/28 years old. He is magnificent the way he thinks about football, he thinks very quickly and it’s so sweet how he touches the ball.
"He can play in different positions behind the striker. He doesn’t have the sharpness yet but he is performance was very positive. I’m very happy. The result obviously is not the most important thing but it is always important. We tried in training some principles of our play and I could see them out there.
"Obviously not in a perfect way, the condition is not the best, ten days of training sessions, a culmination of fatigue, no sharpness… this takes time. But I could see different things, they have started thinking about football the way I think and that pleased me."
Everybody who could play, played. Everybody had a positive performance so I am happy.
In the end, Mourinho made 11 changes, eight at half-time and another three in the second-half, as he took a good look at the options available to him at the DW Stadium.
Wayne Rooney, Chris Smalling and Marcus Rashford have been given an extended rest after their efforts for England at Euro 2016 while Zlatan Ibrahimovic is yet to return also.
The former Chelsea and Real Madrid boss added: "Everybody who could play, played. Everybody had a positive performance so I am happy and best of all, in a friendly match, I could call it a training session against opposition… I have never seen so many supporters.
"[They showed] permanent support to the team, the manifestation of happiness with a few things they could see in the team, so this is fantastic."
United now travel out to Asia where they will face Borussia Dortmund and rivals Manchester City in the International Champions Cup before the Community Shield fixture against Leicester City on 7 August at Wembley.
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