Man United fans must love Marouane Fellaini now – Jose Mourinho

Mata tapped home five minutes before half-time to put United in front at the Vitality Stadium, before second-half goals by Wayne Rooney and Zlatan Ibrahimovic put the game beyond their opponents.

The Swede struck from 25 yards to seal the victory for United as Jose Mourinho’s side began their campaign with a comfortable victory over Eddie Howe’s men.

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has revealed that Juan Mata does have a future at Old Trafford, following consistent speculation about the midfielder’s prospects.

Mourinho still has world-record signing Paul Pogba to add to his line-up after the France global served a one-match suspension holding over from his time with Juventus this weekend.

“It was an important goal, a clever goal, a goal by somebody with a natural instinct to play football”, Mourinho said. “Our idea is that he will be a very important player for us”, he added.

“When you buy somebody like him you have always the question mark which is how the personality adapts to a complete different situation from before”, Mourinho said of the big-money summer signing from Villarreal.

Mourinho was pleased with the victory and the performance from Ibrahimovic, with the Swedish forward’s role at United expected to go beyond just his performances on the pitch.

“I’m confident and I believe I’m good enough to play and if I play, I’m confident I will score goals”. “He is at the top of his qualities”.

“With Fellaini I always have the feeling that he was not loved by the general Red people”, Mourinho said.

“We have made a real statement bringing in four great signings and the new manager”. ‘Luke Shaw, Marcus Rashford. Herrera started the game on the south coast, playing the full 90 minutes and picking up a booking to boot, but posed for a number of pictures with his team-mates on United’s return flight back to Manchester on Sunday evening. You have to forget his passport, you have to forget he is 34 years old because the body and the mentality is not that of a 34-year-old guy. When they scored, I had to change the shape to get more control.

“The game was on a knife-edge until the first goal”, Howe said.