VIEWS ON UNITED'S VICTORY AT BOURNEMOUTH
ManUtd.com gathered a selection of post-match quotes from players, managers and legends after Manchester United's comfortable victory over AFC Bournemouth on Wednesday night.
The Reds took the lead midway through the first half with a second goal in three games from defender Chris Smalling, with Romelu Lukaku putting the visitors out of sight in the second half after a brilliant run and assist by Man-of-the-Match poll winner, Paul Pogba.
Jose Mourinho, Lukaku, Smalling and Luke Shaw all spoke to MUTV after the win at the Vitality Stadium and we have summarised their key points below.
Jose Mourinho: "The players were good because the team was good. I think individually very good performances and collectively against a team that has a certain style of play that isn’t easy to play against. A good victory and a good three points. I’m not going to repeat this team [in Saturday’s Emirates FA Cup semi-final] but all 11 players who started the game performed well and told me ‘we are here if you need us’. They showed their attitude was good and their performance was good."
Chris Smalling: "Yes we did [deliver], we all knew that [game] against West Brom wasn't good enough. Tonight we needed to stand up and put on a performance. I think tonight you could see the lads were up for it. I think quite often when I get my goals they come in a few games, and it was nice to contribute in that way as well. It has been our goal for a little while to make sure we get to that [FA Cup] final and this is the perfect way to lead up to the weekend."
Marouane Fellaini: "The manager trusted in me today and I think it was a good performance from the team. The attitude was great today, we won and it's good for us and our confidence because we have a big game on Saturday. If you want to win the trophy you have to perform every weekend and have the attitude we had today. I think every week players want to perform to be able to play the next week and I think the manager put that bit of pressure on the players to win today. If the manager decides to start me or not to start, [in the FA Cup semi-final on Saturday] I'm there to help the team and will try to do my best."
Luke Shaw: "The three points were the main objective, as we have been a bit down because of the bad result [on Sunday]. For momentum going into this weekend, we wanted to make sure we got the points we needed. Chris [Smalling] is doing an amazing job, not just defensively, but he is an attacking option, especially when we have corners and set pieces, he is very dangerous."
View from opposition - Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe: "We gave everything, we were decent for large spells. The energy the players gave was very high. The frustrating thing is that we got in good positions but didn't execute the final part. They didn't have a huge amount of chances either but took their goals well. You have to admire the quality of the opposition at times. We expected them to turn up and want to win, that's what they have always done. They responded to a setback and their front three caused us problems."
View from a United legend - Paul Parker: "It was a job well done. Jose wanted a solid performance and he got a solid performance. Bournemouth didn’t have enough about them when it mattered and United came away comfortable 2-0 winners. I don’t think there will be any surprises in the line-up on Saturday. He doesn’t like to make big changes for big games. He will probably play a lot of the players that played last week.”
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