José Mourinho won the first trophy of the new season in his first competitive game as Manchester United manager and immediately dedicated it to his predecessor. Without Louis van Gaal, he pointed out, United would not have been involved in the Community Shield at Wembley.
“I would like to dedicate this victory to Louis van Gaal,” he said. “I don’t mind him having one more trophy, and I remember when I have left clubs who have gone on to win things they don’t always recognise who helped them get there. So this win is for him and in addition I dedicate it to the Manchester United players who were not involved in the game. It was difficult to leave out good players like Memphis Depay, Phil Jones and Ashley Young, but I had to make choices. We are a team and they understand that.”
Mourinho is nothing if not quick on his feet. Just three days ago the Portuguese was bemoaning the legacy Van Gaal had left behind at Old Trafford, saying it was hard to get players to ditch his methods and speed up their game, though at least he was honest about the reasons his players had to work hard to achieve their 2-1 win against Leicester City.
“I knew we would get caught in the second half, we are not fit enough yet,” he said. “Fortunately we recovered our balance with a few substitutions and we were in control again by the time we scored the winner. Even then the last five minutes were a nightmare.
“I thought Leicester had brought back Rory Delap when Luis Hernández started throwing the ball 50 yards into our box. They had their goalkeeper coming up too, they made life really difficult.
“Leicester continue to be an amazing team and I think they will have another fantastic season. We are improving, though, even when we were struggling a little in the second half we were very compact and organised. We are getting there.
“In this moment we are not a super team, we are just a team with a super desire. We want to win every game this season. That may be a stupid ambition, in fact it is a stupid ambition, but that’s what I feel we must do.”
Claudio Ranieri was disappointed but resigned after Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s header tilted the game United’s way in the final 10 minutes. “I thought we deserved penalties as a minimum,” the Leicester manager said. “I cannot be too downhearted, I was pleased with the performance and only the result was against us. I saw the same Leicester team as last season, they players gave me 100%, maybe 120%. Everybody gave the maximum, and I cannot be unhappy with that.
“We are in the right way, a big team that has spent a lot of money had to fight very hard to beat us, so while we are still in pre‑season and not quite fully prepared, that is not bad.”