Football
Rob Dawson, Correspondent 6y

Man United's Jose Mourinho happy to help change fans' views on Fellaini

MANCHESTER -- Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho praised Marouane Fellaini for showing "the fight" to win over the club's supporters.

Fellaini was serenaded by Old Trafford after scoring twice in the 4-0 win over Crystal Palace on Saturday. Juan Mata and Romelu Lukaku were also on the score sheet on another comfortable afternoon for United.

The Belgium international has at times been made a figure of fun by some United fans since his move from Everton under David Moyes in 2013 and was booed by parts of the home crowd during a game against Tottenham last season.

Mourinho, however, has maintained the 29-year-old is a key part of his squad, and in the absence of Paul Pogba, Fellaini, who returned to the team after missing the trip to CSKA Moscow in midweek with an ankle injury, made a key contribution against rock-bottom Palace, who are still looking for their first point and first goal of the season.

Mourinho told a news conference: "We are all managers, we are all different. Sometimes we like players others don't like, some players perform better with some of us than others and I have examples of players that didn't perform well with me and did with other managers.

"I think Marouane has important qualities and I try to use these qualities depending on the situation. He has played with me as defensive midfielder, as second striker, adapted to the needs of the team. He's a great character, we have a good relation and things are going really well for us.

"I think only a strong character would resist the difficulties here because he had some difficult times where people didn't recognise his qualities and probably other managers didn't like so much the qualities that he has, so you have to be a strong character.

"He's a fighter, a guy with lots of pride. I'm really pleased I helped him to reach this and to change the perception the fans have now, I'm really happy for him."

United have already scored 21 goals in the Premier League this season, compared to just 54 during the whole of the last campaign.

Last season, it was 10 home draws and a lack of goals at Old Trafford that helped to curtail any hopes of winning the title.

This season, their four home Premier League home games have ended 4-0, 2-0, 4-0 and 4-0, though Mourinho is refusing to get carried away.

He added: "It's just four matches at home. I know in the same four matches last season we got eight points not 12. The relation with the matches is we have four more points, we are playing well.

"I don't say well for 90 minutes because we had periods where we lose a bit of our consistency, but that's difficult to do that for 90 minutes. It's difficult to do that after a Champions League game.

"So I'm happy we start really strong, respecting the opponent but going strong for not giving them a chance to stay in the game. So I'm really happy with the points."

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