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Whether Pogba features at Wembley this weekend will go some way to showing whether he is still part of Mourinho’s long-term plans, but he at least impressed his boss for one night after winning the man of the match award.
“I’m not very good on man of the match, I’m not a big fan of it, but Paul Pogba played very well,” Mourinho said.
“Against Man City he was phenomenal but today he was very, very good. A good choice.”
Well played, @PaulPogba – tonight’s #MUFC Man of the Match ?? pic.twitter.com/ftnuhq2w3O
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) April 18, 2018
Mourinho’s side are 14 points clear of fifth placed Chelsea and will be guaranteed to qualify for the Champions League if the Blues fail to beat Burnley on Thursday.
“The first ambition was to finish in the top four and now one point is probably enough. When we have that resolved we can think about third and second place,” Mourinho added.
Smalling put United ahead in the 28th minute when he tapped in from Jesse Lingard’s cross despite Bournemouth appeals for offside.
Having survived two Bournemouth penalty appeals — including Luke Shaw blocking out Callum Wilson as he tried to finish off a cross — United doubled their lead in the 70th minute.
Pogba was slightly more effective after his recent troubles and he created United’s second goal.
Breaking up a Bournemouth attack, he galloped clear and picked out Lukaku’s run with a perfectly-weighted pass.
Lukaku capped the raid by slotting past Bournemouth goalkeeper Asmir Begovic to claim his 27th goal of the season.
That clinched United’s sixth win in their last seven league games, but all eyes remained on Pogba.
He was substituted soon after and initially headed straight down the tunnel, but was directed to the bench, where he took a seat on the back row like a naughty child at school.
