Manchester United 1 Stoke 1: Jose Mourinho hails the United players for their best performance of the season so far – even though they only draw to the Potters

JOSE MOURINHO admitted he was pleased with his Manchester United players – despite only drawing with 1-1 struggling Stoke.

Mark Hughes’ side equalised through Joe Allen after the home side missed a bucket load of chances.

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AP:Associated Press

But the Portuguese was satisfied that the players have reacted to his instructions and played with more dynamism after a stale 1-0 win in the Europa League on Thursday.

United put Leicester to the sword 4-1 at Old Trafford last weekend but three of those goals came from corners.

This time they scored one from open-play, but failed to spark in the final third, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic struggling to beat battling Lee Grant.

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EPA

Mourinho said: “They scored a goal that is very undeserved. But it was a much better performance than against Leicester, because against Leicester the goals are more than the performance. Today was exactly the opposite.

“The best performance by far, six, seven, eight chances to win the game, even after the one-nil gives United a team that wants to score more goals and wants to be completely in control.

“In the first minute, the goalkeeper made immediately an unbelievable save. And he kept doing that until the end of the game. He started with an amazing save to Zlatan, he ends with an amazing save from Zlatan too.

“He had the ball in the post from Pogba. We had face-to-face chances, we had control of the game and played really well.

“You can say what you want but that’s my opinion. Today for me, a great performance to have not just the three points, but three points and a bad result.

"The reaction of the fans at the end of the game says absolutely everything."

Mourinho also failed to give credit to visiting Stoke - branding them as fortunate as they equalised through a goal mouth scramble following David de Gea's spilt catch.

The United boss added: "They fought like they do every game, they come for a draw, when they concede the goal, they couldn't have a reaction because we were totally in control, I have to say they were lucky - but luck is part of football.

"My tribute to them is that they are not guilty of our bad luck."

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