United boss Jose Mourinho has praised the “amazing” form of striker Romelu Lukaku after the Belgian scored a brace in the Reds’ 4-1 win over CSKA Moscow.
Lukaku now has 10 goals in his first 9 games for United and seems unstoppable in front of goal. The forward has brought with him an impressive goalscoring tally since his arrival from Everton, leaving fans genuinely excited about what he could have in store for the duration of the season.
Of course, Mourinho has admitted Lukaku would not be so prolific without a good team around him – and has praised his team’s display against the Russian side.
“It is a great achievement but it is only possible with a good team,” said Mourinho on Lukaku’s goalscoring form.
“Without a good team it is not possible and the team is playing well. They are amazing numbers for Romelu. He is humble and wants to learn and improve all the time.”
“I think ambition is there and I trust he can keep performing for us.”
“I think the performance can only be good for the team and the players,” he added. “For the team confidence is good because six points in two matches in the Champions League puts us in a good position and for the players individually it is also good because we had very good performances.”
“(Chris) Smalling and (Victor) Lindelof had very good performances, (Ander) Herrera has not started a match in a long time and had a good performance, so did Anthony Martial – and I am speaking about the players who are not starting matches.”
United play Crystal Palace next at Old Trafford, but Mourinho has insisted his team are at a huge disadvantage by playing in Moscow on Wednesday evening – to then playing on Saturday afternoon in Manchester.
“The Premier League is another story. We play Saturday 3pm against a fresh team and we have to play after this match.”
“We have to keep our feet on the ground, stay humble and follow our direction because we are having a very good start to the season.”
“We have started competitions strong in August and September and have now just one more game, a difficult one.”
[Quotes via Sky Sports]