Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho explains why he hauled off Zlatan Ibrahimovic at half-time against Burnley

MANCHESTER UNITED boss Jose Mourinho has revealed why he surprisingly hauled off Zlatan Ibrahimovic as his side struggled at home to Burnley.

The 36-year-old was given his first start at Old Trafford since his horror injury against Anderlecht in April, but the striker failed to make an impact as United were 2-0 down at half time Sean Dyche’s side.

Mourinho made the tactical decision to drag off the Swede and Marcos Rojo, replacing them with Jesse Lingard and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

The switch was vindicated as Lingard’s double including his stoppage time strike earned United a point to stay in second place.

Mourinho explained his thinking after the game as he wanted more movement around striker Romelu Lukaku.
He told MUTV: “Yeah it was tactical.

“We changed to only one central defender as we know that Burnley don’t have normally the ball as they just play direct so we played one against one with Phil Jones.

“It is a risk and Jones accepted that and Nemanja Matic was there just to bring the ball from a totally free position, bringing lots of balls.”

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He added: “Then, instead of more positional players like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, I decided to go with Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Jesse Lingard and Juan Mata with all three trying to play in these areas behind Lukaku.

“You can say we had some success and I still think there were so many balls in such important areas with lots of crosses, good and low crosses, but we didn’t attack all these balls well.

“Also, normally, we were not lucky with rebounds so I’m happy with the effort, happy with the personality and happy with the feeling that we didn’t lose but, of course, we lost two points.”

After draws with Leicester City and Burnley, United face struggling Southampton at Old Trafford before heading to Everton on New Year’s Day.