Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho salutes Paul Pogba after show of professionalism at Sevilla

Getty Images
Jamie Teather23 February 2018

Jose Mourinho has heaped praise on Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba after his show of professionalism during his side’s Champions League tie in Sevilla on Wednesday.

Pogba started the game on the bench amid reports that he and his manager had had a falling out, with Scott McTominay taking the Frenchman’s place.

And 21-year-old McTominay repaid his manager’s faith as he was one of the standout performers on a night David De Gea stole all the headlines for his outrageous save in the 0-0 draw with the La Liga side.

Mourinho was speaking in his press conference before United host Chelsea on Sunday, and the Portuguese manager seemed to extinguish any fall-out rumours with Pogba, saluting the 24-year-old’s attitude.

Pogba would have been understandably frustrated at being named on the Manchester United bench, but when called upon as teammate Ander Herrera struggled with a hamstring injury, Pogba reacted in the way Mourinho would have hoped for in a time of need.

"You saw the game against Sevilla - I think it's always more difficult to come from the bench than to start.” Mourinho told reporters.

“A player when he's starting the game has a different kind of preparation for it and to come on even without warming up, in minute 15, or minute 20, and to get into the pace of the game is not easy.”

Mourinho added: "I think he had a very positive game for us and sometimes, details are details, but sometimes players on the bench take five minutes to be ready to play.

“They don't have shinpads, they don't have the strapping, they don't have a shirt.

“He took 10 seconds to be ready to come to the pitch, which showed the professionalism that he was ready to play and help the team, which he did."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in