MANCHESTER, Sporting Alert – Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho said his team secured a deserving win over Sunderland on Monday but acknowledged there is still room for improvement.
The Red Devils easily put away the Black Cats 3-1 in an English Premier League Boxing Day fixture at Old Trafford with Daley Blind, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Zlatan Ibrahimovic providing the goals.
Manchester United were winning for the fourth successive time while the Premier League giants extended its unbeaten run in all competitions to 11 matches.
However, although he was delighted with the 3-points, Mourinho warned his side still needs to improve.
“We have played well for a long time,” he said. “I think our game against Burnley was absolutely phenomenal. We played better against Burnley than today.
“The good performances we had for quite some time. Finally we have the good results, four victories and 12 points in a row.
“The players know the principles of how we play and they are comfortable but we need to improve.”
Mourinho said he “didn’t like” the way his team played in the first half, despite going into the break with a 1-0 lead.
However, he said the home side fixed the problems after the interval so “we deserve the victory.”
“I didn’t like the first half performance. I like the result. I liked very much the second half,” the Portuguese coach said.
“The first half I didn’t like. I was expecting us to start much better.
“I know David Moyes and Sunderland deserved credit for what they did in the first half.
“Second half we had everything back intensity recover the ball high in the pitch play fast passes and to have players like Anthony Martial and Henrikh Mkhitaryan on the bench helps. We deserve the victory.”
Mourinho was winning four Premier League games in a row for the first time since April 2015 when he was in charge at Chelsea.
