Jose Mourinho backs Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof's Man Utd partnership

1/105
Tom Doyle11 August 2019

Jose Mourinho believes Manchester United have the beginnings of a solid centre-back partnership in Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof following a 4-0 victory over Chelsea at Old Trafford.

There was plenty of pressure on Maguire's shoulders for Sunday's game as the £80million signing made his United debut against Frank Lampard's Blues.

However, the former Leicester City defender literally rose to the occasion as he helped United withstand an early onslaught from Chelsea, providing a valuable presence in the air and instigating counter-attacks on the floor.

Former United manager Mourinho was working as a pundit for Sky Sports during the game and praised Maguire for being "solid as a rock", suggesting Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has a promising pairing in the England international and Lindelof.

"You can be very dangerous in attack but if you feel that a mistake is around the corner it takes your confidence away and you don't play as well," he said.

Manchester United via Getty Imag

"When you feel there is something that allows you to play you are much more confident.

"As I always said Lindelof can be a very good player. With Maguire it can be a very good partnership."

Maguire told Sky Sports after the game: "It's a great start for myself and obviously the team. We rode our luck a little bit in the first half, we gave them too many chances and were sloppy on the ball.

"In the second half we were a lot better, were much more like ourselves and controlled the game and we fully deserved the three points.

"It was the first game of the season at Old Trafford, so there were few nerves in the first half. We didn't handle the ball well enough and gave it away in dangerous areas.

"But in the second half we kept it better, moved it nicely and if you give it to our front three you've always got a chance of scoring because they're so dangerous."

Additional reporting by the Press Association.

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