Maybe the entire preseason was nothing but the great Jose Mourinho mind game of all his mind games. Perhaps there is much more of an intricate method to the madness he portrays when the cameras are recording.
What we do know for sure is this- preseason results mean little, if anything at all. United, who often looked atrocious this preseason, opened their regular season with a 2-1 win at home over Leicester City Friday night despite missing several key players due to injury or lack of match fitness because of post World Cup holidays.
Here’s the kicker- the two biggest heroes of the night were the two players who have arguably been thrown under the bus the most by Mourinho during his time in charge. Midfielder Paul Pogba, shockingly handed a first team assignment and the captain’s arm band for this contest, opened the scoring and won Man of the Match.
He came back to training just four days ago, and he netted a penalty in the 3′.
The game winning score came from none other than left back Luke Shaw, who scored the first senior team goal of his career. So all the scoring came from the two players who reportedly get along with Mourinho the least.
Let’s start with Pogba, who made this very mysterious and fascinating Instagram post after the match:
“I’ll always give my best to the fans and my teammates no matter what’s going on. #pogfeelings” the Frenchman wrote on the post. This will no doubt invite more speculation about his reported unsettled state with the club, and potentially lead to more transfer rumors on the gossip pages.
We’ll save that for another day though, as Pogba drew a lot of praise from Mourinho after the match.
“Pogba was a monster,” Mourinho said. “Paul was fantastic. His contribution was amazing. We thought a maximum 60 minutes but he managed 80.”
Moving on to Luke Shaw, what a wonderful, amazing experience he had today. The young English international has endured so much over the course of his time at Old Trafford- a multitude of injuries, being called fat and out of shape, having his work ethic and discipline questioned, being buried on the depth chart.
Today however, Shaw was an inspirational success story- a testament to the benefits of hard work and self-determination.
“It’s the best feeling I have had in my career,” Shaw said of scoring the game winner.
“I have worked really hard over the pre-season and I had a lot of time to reflect, and work on what I needed to. Even tonight, I know I can be better and that is what I want to keep showing the manager.”
It looks like exciting times are ahead for Shaw this season. For United in general, it could be a regular season with a lot of unexpected twists and turns.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, is currently a regular contributor to SB Nation, WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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