Following Manchester United’s 3-0 victory over Leicester City, manager Jose Mourinho has praised the form of Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
Mourinho was in a much more jovial mood at his press conference than during recent weeks, following a bout of tetchy interviews and criticism of journalists.
The Portuguese coach still responded in a pointed manner to many of the questions asked of him, consistently suggesting that he had been unfairly treated by the media in the past, but did it with a smile rather than a scowl.
It was a return to the Mourinho of old. Indeed, he suggested that his Chelsea teams were previously disliked for their counter-attacking prowess, but that the media now regard it as an “art”.
In reference to his dismissal by Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich after last season’s 2-1 loss to Leicester, he also jokingly ended his press conference with: “The last time I sat in this chair
, the next day I was sacked!”
However, one of the topics we was most defensive of, was his treatment of Mkhitaryan, who has recently shone.
Mourinho was heavily criticised during the Autumn for excluding Mkhitaryan from his United squad for over two months, while the Red Devils toiled with a run of poor form.
The Armenia international both scored and assisted against the Foxes on Sunday afternoon, and Mourinho insists that his brilliance is partly due to being “protected” while he settled after his summer move from Germany to England.
Mourinho said: “Sometimes the best way to protect the players is not to play them.
“In your perspective, if a player is not playing, the manager is… I cannot say the word, I have to find a different word…(smiling) disturbing him.
“But it’s not true. Sometimes we don’t play players and we protect them. Micki was one of these cases, he was protected. He was adapting.
“I can see not just the things you can see, because you see the magic things he can do on the pitch, but i also see other things that i want to see. Micki is playing really, really well.”
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