As his ‘battle’ with Jose Mourinho continues, Paul Pogba showed that he still “cares” about Manchester United following the disappointing Champions League draw against Valencia.
The Red Devils were unable to find the back of the net in the goalless stalemate with the Spanish outfit at Old Trafford, and it resulted in them being booed off by the United fans.
Before the game, Mourinho had stated in a press conference that “Some care more than others”.
That might have been a veiled reference to Pogba, whose recent Instagram post – where he was seen laughing with a few teammates during the League Cup defeat to Derby County – led to a PR disaster on the training pitch as the two clashed in front of TV cameras.
But after United’s fourth game in a row without a win on Tuesday night, Pogba posted on social media: “Let’s keep fighting United #mufc”
Mourinho felt that it was a “fair result” against Valencia.
“It was a frustrating night and not the result we want.
“There were some improvements in our performance because if we don’t perform at least at an acceptable level, we would lose and a defeat would leave us in a difficult situation,” the Portuguese manager was quoted as saying on the United website.
“So, in such a difficult group like we have, if you cannot win, you don’t lose.
“I think we were the team that tried more and had probably a couple of the biggest chances to win it, but I accept the result as a fair result.”
He did employ a more attacking strategy, starting with all of Pogba, Marouane Fellaini, Alexis Sanchez, Marcus Rashford and Romelu Lukaku.
Mourinho even brought on out-of-favour Frenchman Anthony Martial in the second half, but while Rashford came closest to scoring by rattling the crossbar from a free kick, United didn’t get the breakthrough.
“They tried, the players tried and they raised the level of their effort. We raised our level and intensity, and we tried to play in some crucial positions building up, but we don’t have the technical quality to build from the back,” the manager said.
The boss reacts to tonight's game with #MUTV... #MUFC pic.twitter.com/VqROzaIFXb
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) October 2, 2018
“We did something well – we tried to stop a very dangerous and very fast team on the counter-attack, and we tried to create chances to win the game.
“We knew we were not going to create 20 chances, because we know our attacking players are not also in the best moment of confidence and individual performance level.
“So, we thought with three or four chances, we would score and win the game. Which we didn’t, but, as I was saying, it’s not a bad result.”
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