Jose Mourinho has hailed the performance of forward Marcus Rashford during Manchester United’s 1-0 victory over Southampton on Saturday afternoon.

United fought hard in what was a rather disappointing performance all-round, with Romelu Lukaku scoring the only goal of the game after 20 minutes. However, the Saints caused United all sorts of problems and piled the pressure on particularly in the second half.

One bright spark in the United side was Marcus Rashford, who once again played from the wing. Mourinho praised the England stars’ performance, calling him phenomenal.

“Marcus was phenomenal, he was phenomenal. Cedric [Soares] is a very good offensive full back, and [James] Ward-Prowse is a good crosser of the ball, so it was a good side.” Mourinho told Sky Sports

“Marcus felt what everybody else felt in the team, if we don’t concede we win three points, so let’s fight hard not to concede.”

“It’s not always possible to have high quality, but we fought hard. We fought hard. We did for 20 to 25 minutes what many teams in the Premier League do for 90 minutes, which is play with five at the back and defend with a low block.”

“But credit to Southampton, they played, tried to play, they always try, Pellegrino sent a second striker in to play more direct to play more aggressive.”

“It was a hard game, and we fought really hard, and I’m really happy.”

“I felt that the game was really hard for us, when I felt we were not really fresh, despite many of the players not playing in midweek. Maybe it was the heat, because in Manchester we don’t see the sun often!

“But I felt some of the boys were not sharp, the attacking players were not sharp, I didn’t feel we could score two, three or four like we sometimes do, so the option was to go for the points.”
[Quotes via Sky Sports]