Jose Mourinho on reasons for making 7 changes for Fenerbahce clash

Jose Mourinho was delighted following Manchester United's convincing 4-1 win over Fenerbahce in the Europa League on Tuesday night (20 October). Paul Pogba put in a man of the match performance with a brace, while Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard were the other players on the score sheet.

The Portuguese coach made seven changes to the team that started against Liverpool on Monday (17 October) with Martial, Matteo Darmian, Luke Shaw, Juan Mata, Jesse Lingard, Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick coming into the starting lineup. He admitted that he was happy with all the individual performances, but indicated that it was helped due to the stability provided by regular starters Eric Bailly, Chris Smalling and David de Gea.

Mourinho admitted that the wholesale changes were prompted after an intense game with the Reds at Anfield and while he did not admit it during his post-match press conference it is also likely to have been influenced by the upcoming clash against Chelsea on Sunday (23 October). A number of fringe players like Darmian and Rojo got an opportunity, but are likely to be dropped for their trip to Stamford Bridge.

"I chose this team because I felt it was the one to win, because after such an intense game on Monday I felt that some of these players would be in better condition to perform. I will start thinking about Chelsea tomorrow," Mourinho told United's official site.

"Am I happy with the performance? Yes. Happy with individual performances? Yes. I am happy with the result as well which is the most important thing, because the group is difficult.

"The players are good. We kept a certain stability by keeping the goalkeeper and central defenders to give us the stability that we need. The other players were fresh because they didn't play [on Monday]," the Portuguese coach added.