Jose Mourinho explains why Victor Lindelof was left out of Manchester United's squad on Sunday
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Jose Mourinho has explained why £31million summer signing Victor Lindelof was left out of the squad for Sunday's win over West Ham, report the Manchester Evening News.
Lindelof was demoted from the United squad for the Premier League opener against West Ham having struggled on his debut against Real Madrid in the Super Cup on Tuesday.
Eric Bailly and Phil Jones were suspended for that tie but returned to the starting line-up as United walloped the Hammers 4-0 at Old Trafford to propel them to the top of the Premier League.
Lindelof watched on from the directors' box and his fiancee sent an irate tweet to trolls abusing her over his absence, but Mourinho dismissed misgivings over Lindelof and compared him with former Chelsea stalwart Ricardo Carvalho.
"I think Real Madrid was too early for him," Mourinho said. "He played because Jones and Bailly were both suspended.
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"I have players coming from different leagues to the Premier League and normally it's not easy. The difference between Lukaku and Matic is exactly that, they have years and years of the Premier League.
"I brought in 2004 a phenomenal central defender to England in Carvalho, he was one of the best central defenders in the last decade of the Premier League, but he struggled, it was difficult for him to come and adapt to the beginning and I think Victor needs a little bit of time and he's going to have that time.
"Mkhitaryan is not a defender and last season he needed his time, so let's go step by step, because Victor is a fantastic player."
(Image: @majanilsson/Twitter)
Mourinho played down the significance of United's opening victory having taken them to the summit in his league opener at Bournemouth a year ago.
"Last season we were also top of the league with goals in the first match and we finished sixth," he added. "So this means, it is clear, it just means that we played well and with confidence levels really high and now our challenge is to keep, not this level of result, but is to keep these confidence levels.
"I think we, as I told, we can be a better team than we were last season. Second transfer window for us, now 13 months of work together, so we have better conditions to be better."