Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has praised his players for being “professional and responsible” in Wednesday night’s 2-0 win at Bournemouth.
A close-range strike from Chris Smalling in the first half and Romelu Lukaku’s goal on 70 minutes strengthened the Red Devils’ grip on second place in the Premier League table.
Mourinho was especially pleased with how United bounced back from their 1-0 home loss to West Bromwich Albion, and paid special praise to Paul Pogba for a much-improved performance from the weekend.
“The players were good,” the Portuguese told BT Sport. “It was a good professional performance with good effort and responsibility. There was desire to score and a desire to cope with the defensive responsibilities against a fast team.
“All of them were professional and responsible. The first ambition was to finish in the top four and now one point is probably enough. When we have that resolved we can think about third and second place.
“Everything was faster, it was simple. The players were in the right positions and not trying one more flick, one more trick. Everything was good, I am happy. Every player on the pitch was positive and put himself available for Saturday.
“I’m not very good on man of the match, I’m not a big fan of it, but Paul Pogba played very well. Against Man City he was phenomenal but today he was very, very good. A good choice.”
Manchester United will play Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley Stadium on Saturday for a place in the FA Cup final.
