Man Utd news: Jose Mourinho pays ultimate compliment to Paul Pogba after Newcastle win

Pogba marked his Manchester United return with a goal and an assist as the Red Devils put Newcastle to the sword.

Dwight Gayle gave the home side a shock lead, but Anthony Martial, Chris Smalling, Pogba and Romelu Lukaku all struck to give Jose Mourinho’s side the win.

And, speaking after the game, Mourinho gushed over the commanding midfield performance of Manchester United star Pogba. 

“I am pleased for the three three points, the quality of our performance after Newcastle’s goal, that mentality to react without panic and in a positive way, and obviously the return of injured players is always nice, especially in Zlatan Ibrahimovic’ case. His was such a dramatic injury. To see him back is a great emotion,” he said. 

“Paul Pogba is different class – Paul and Nemanja Matic grew up together at the start of the season and are the engine of the team. It was in Paul’s hands, how many minutes to play until he began to feel fatigued. It was a great performance from him.

“I know that strikers depend on goals for confidence and happiness. I was really happy to see him score his goal.

“We go match to match – we can only play Manchester City twice in a season. In those games we will try to take points – outside of those fixtures we are not in control.”

Mourinho also thinks his team are well-primed to challenge on all fronts this season.

“We played very well after their goal. They started better, were organsied and compact. Rafael Benitez is very intelligent and they created problems but we did well. The result could have been a little bit bigger than it was.

“The first goal, our equaliser, the home team feels pressure. It was very important. We pressed and then the second goal put us in a situation with more confidence. They had to come out then we had plenty of space to play.

“You recover some players and you lose others, some teams are luckier.

“We have had to go through difficult matches without important players, let us see if we can go through the Christmas period with all the players available at our disposal. The more players we have, the better for me.

“People can say what they want, sometimes we score, sometimes we don’t. We can sleep always well because when you give everything and you have no more to give, that is fine.”