Jose Mourinho proved right to stick with Marouane Fellaini even when Manchester United fans booed… but Victor Lindelof is a worry
MANCHESTER UNITED are back in the Champions League… beating Basel 3-0, no less.
It might have only been a short absence but it felt great to hear that famous anthem ringing out at Old Trafford once again.
Goals from Marouane Fellaini, Romelu Lukaku and Marcus Rashford sealed what ended up being a relatively comfortable win… yet Jose Mourinho was far from pleased.
He criticised his United stars of being too complacent when the score reached 2-0 – and it was easy to understand why.
Had Basel’s striker gone down under a naive challenge from Victor Lindelof, they would have had a deserved penalty and the game could easily have panned out differently.
There were certainly some unlikely heroes at Old Trafford on Tuesday night.
Nobody would ever have expected that our first goal in the 2017 Champions League campaign would be Fellaini towering a header in from a pinpoint Ashley Young cross.
But both players were superb against Basel.
You can’t discuss the game without pointing out Fellaini’s man of the match performance.
No player has been taken under Mourinho’s wing more so than the Belgian midfielder and he’s responded very well to the trust he’s been afforded.
After giving away that penalty away at Everton in December 2016, Fellaini was lambasted by every part of the fanbase and only Mourinho stood in his corner.
He never gave up on him.
He’s always been a manager who thrives on a siege mentality and the Fellaini situation at United has been a perfect example of that.
Every time you hear Mourinho say how he’s weaker without Fellaini in his squad, there’s no sarcasm involved.
He genuinely seems to love the brush headed Belgian and his performance last night vindicated that trust.
Then there’s Young… his performance at right-back was the best we’ve seen this season but should he really be starting for United any more?
In both Young and Fellaini, Mourinho is showing a classic trait of Sir Alex Ferguson in getting more than par efforts out of average players.
That’s what good man management can bring.
But regardless of the positives and the win against Basel, the injury to captain-on-the-night Paul Pogba casts a big cloud over the result.
It sounds like he will be missing for at least a few weeks and with Liverpool away coming up in a month’s time, he is now in a race to be fit.
Don’t let what fans of other clubs say about Pogba fool you – he’s been instrumental for United this season, sometimes quietly and sometimes with headline goals and assists.
I still think he’s going to be right up there in the nominations for Player of the Year this season and to have him out for a month is a real blow.
As for Lindelof, I am a little bit concerned.
The Basel game was his opportunity to stake a claim to a starting XI position but he didn’t at all.
His distribution from the back was pretty composed, thanks in no small part to a lack of pressure on him from Basel’s attackers.
But defensively he looked so uncomfortable and miles away from being ready for the Premier League.
Nobody is going to throw Lindelof under the bus but at this stage, but it’s fair to worry about the ex-Benfica man and how long it will take him to fully adapt to life at United.
Next up for United is a Wayne Rooney re-union on Sunday which will no doubt be a very strange affair.
Having drawn against Stoke last weekend, Mourinho will be looking for nothing but three points against a Ronald Koeman side who will be bang up for it.
