Manchester Evening News, UK
Wednesday 7:53 AM GMT
Manchester United players Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Jesse Lingard praised by Jose Mourinho
Jesse Lingard scored twice for Man Utd as they drew their Boxing Day Premier League fixture vs Burnley at Old Trafford.
By Samuel Luckhurst
Jose Mourinho believes substitutesJesse LingardandHenrikh Mkhitaryanbrought 'dynamism' to helpManchester Unitedearn a Boxing Day draw with Burnley.
United were 2-0 down at home to The Clarets at half-time and Mourinho decided to introduce Mkhitaryan and Lingard for Marcos Rojo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, effectively switching to a three-man defence which included only one centre half inPhil Jones.
Lingard scored both goals having been accused of 'childish' finishing in Saturday's Leicester draw, while Mkhitaryan has not started a United game since November 5 and Mourinho is believed to be open to selling the Armenian in the January transfer window.
United's dropped points tally rose to 15 from the last five with their 2-2 draw on Tuesday but Mourinho was pleased with the impact of the substitutes and the 'risk' his players took in an attempt to salvage the game.
"We should have won, yes," Mourinho told the BBC. "I take satisfaction by the way the team played, by the way the team reacted, to try to recover from 2-0 down.
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"The boys fought against the 2-0 at half-time, so nothing at all negative to say about my players. I praise their spirit, their reaction, the way they accept all the risks we took in the second half.
"For us to score two goals we need to play in their half for 45 minutes, with only one defender. The end product of so much dominance, two goals, is a miserable number.
"Lingard come in and helped the team, Lingard and Mkhitaryan gave us a good dynamic. All the boys accepted the risk to only play with Jones. All the boys accepted the risk that we took, at least the point is not a defeat and is the minimum the boys deserve for such spirit."
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