Jose Mourinho believes Phil Jones and Chris Smalling sparked Manchester United’s improvement against Stoke after a ‘difficult’ first-half.
United went in at the pause 2-0 up through terrific strikes from Antonio Valencia and Anthony Martial but Stoke threatened an equaliser and Jones made a goal-saving block from Maxim Choupo Moting at 1-0.
Mourinho’s players were more intense in the second period and Romelu Lukaku added to the scoreline to give United their first Premier League win at Old Trafford since December 13.
Smalling has started every United league game since September 30 and Jones is enjoying a fine campaign under Mourinho, who praised the England duo following United’s victory.
“Didn’t like the first-half, I only like two amazing goals,” Mourinho said. “But I think we were confident and organised, but a bit slow and I think tried to bring a positive team with three football players in midfield to try to play, plus [Xherdan] Shaqiri was also coming there.
“They had the ball and it was difficult for us to press them and they had more chances than I would have liked them to have in the first-half. We scored two amazing goals and for me that was the good thing of the first-half.
“Second half totally different, we missed lots of chances, we accelerated the game, we recovered the ball faster, we didn’t let them play, Jones and Smalling brought the line so, so up it was impossible for Peter Crouch to put a foot in the box.
“And in the second-half we played confidently and fast and aggressive and I liked the second-half.”
