Mourinho:”WE CONTROLLED THE GAME”

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho seemed pleased after his side’s goalless draw against Liverpool in the Premier League on Monday night. Below are the key points from his first post-match interview…

WE CONTROLLED THE GAME
“I think it was a very difficult game for us and for them, but I think it was more difficult for them than for us. We kept control of the game for long periods. In the second half David had two great saves that were isolated from the context. But the game was completely under control, not just from a tactical point of view but also an emotional point of view. We influenced the atmosphere in the stadium.”

ONE BIG CHANCE
“We had a big chance where I thought Zlatan was going to score; if you score that goal, it’s 1-0, goodbye, finished. But I think we missed a little bit of sharpness through the middle. I was expecting more penetration and I was thinking about playing Rashford in the position behind Zlatan but he had cramp and I made a change. At that moment I thought it would be difficult to win now, so let’s not lose it.”

HAPPY NOT TO HAVE ALL THE BALL
“That was the game we planned. We didn’t want to control the game by having the ball all the time. We know that they want to press our first phase and we know that the transition when they lose the ball is really strong and high. We knew it would be very difficult for them to score a goal; what we always thought was that we would score a goal to win the match, which we tried.”

NOT THE LAST WONDER OF THE WORLD
“We tried to start really strong in both halves, but they are a good team. They are not the last wonder of the world like you [the media] say they are, but they are a very good team, so we needed to adapt to that.”