Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has praised the performance of Alexis Sanchez after the Chilean starred in Wednesday night’s penalty shootout victory over AC Milan.
“Yes, he arrived hungry, he arrived with appetite for football”, said Mourinho to MUTV after the game. He’s been working really well since day one. Since the first session at the Aon Training Complex, he’s worked with enthusiasm. Physically he’s working really, really hard and he was very good [in the game]. Of course after 60, 65 minutes, you could see his energy going down but he was saying to be on the pitch for 90 minutes was something he wanted to try, which he did.”
The victory on Wednesday night was an excellent example of what Sanchez can do, and offered the sort of encouragement that United fans will be looking for as he heads into his first full season at the club. All too often, the Chilean looked directionless after last January’s move from Arsenal, but a summer off from international commitments will hopefully do him the world of good.
Mourinho also seemed pleased to best a decent opponent, even with the currently enforced absences of Antonio Valencia, Nemanja Matic, Anthony Martial and a whole host of World Cup performers:
“We were having fun. He was saying only us, me and Gattuso. It was really fun. Honestly it was really fun and it was good for players that never take a penalty to feel it, even in a friendly match. To go there and have that chance to feel that little bit of pressure is good so it was a good experience. But for me, the important thing is that, with the group of players we have and losing Valencia already and Matic even worse [to injury], to play against Milan’s best team and to play the way we did and get the result that could have been even better than it was, I think was good.”
