Mourinho hails “confident” Man Utd after opening game win

Matt Stead

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho believes Romelu Lukaku’s display will help his confidence going forward.

The Belgian scored twice on his Premier League debut as the Red Devils went top of the Premier League with a 4-0 win over West Ham.

Anthony Martial and Paul Pogba added the other two goals to ensure a winning start to the season.

“It’s always important,” said Mourinho. “New players in new clubs, new strikers, everyone expects goals from them.

“The pressure is with them. It’s always nice for their confidence.”

Despite seeing his side go top of the embryonic table, Mourinho still felt United could have come out of the blocks quicker.

He added: “The game was difficult, the game was open; at 2-0 they had a chance. I don’t think the game was 4-0.

“Then of course, score the third goal and you can breathe and play with a lot of confidence.

“I think the reality of the game, this was always a difficult game for us.

“We didn’t start especially well, we were a little bit nervous for 10, 15 minutes. Then we had a quality performance, good personality, they played with lots of confidence and have given the result.

“The team was confident and played great football. I’m happy, I think it was a very positive performance.

“The fact that we start (by) winning and are top of the league means nothing, because last season we started winning and I think we were top of the league after the first match – it means nothing.

“The performance again, the levels of confidence, is what matters for me. We got three important points.”