Mourinho: Pogba Was Not Punished With Substitute Role

Jose Mourinho has said his decision to play McTominay in place of Pogba was a tactical decision, and not due to his performance against Tottenham.

Pogba was not at his best in United’s 2-0 loss to Tottenham and was brought on in the 65th minute.

United needed time and could only break through Huddersfield’s defence in the second half.

“I change a few players and the intention was not to punish anyone,” Mourinho told reporters afterwards.
“To punish anyone I also need someone to punish me because we are a team and, when we win we win together, we lose together.

“But I made a few changes thinking about the characteristics of this game and I think this kid [McTominay] has a great desire to recover the ball when the team is not in possession, he’s a kid that chases the ball, that tries to recover high up the pitch and when he has the ball it is always simple and against opponents like Huddersfield, so close and with so many bodies behind the ball, the simplicity sometimes is genius.
“You don’t have space, you have to open spaces by playing simple, so was a decision to play the kid but Paul came on very, very well with a great attitude with the spaces that we had at that time because we were winning 1-0 and Paul could show his talents and his qualities.
“I always try to do what is best for the team in any moment. I prefer to look at it in the beautiful way of a little kid that arrived here with his mum at nine-years-old for the first training session, 10 or 11 years later the kid is playing in a Manchester United shirt in an important match in the Premier League at home at Old Trafford, so I prefer to look at that perspective.

“Paul is a fantastic player, no doubt for me one of the most talented midfield players in the world but to sit on the bench one day is not the end of the world.”