Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has explained his decision to take Juan Mata off during his side's Community Shield victory over Leicester City this evening.
The Spaniard replaced Jesse Lingard in the 63rd minute at Wembley, only to then be taken off himself in stoppage time as Mourinho brought on new signing Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
Mata appeared to be unhappy with the decision, but Mourinho insists that he made the change in order to help United repel any late long-ball tactics from Leicester.
"Juan played very well. He gave me exactly what I need. The rules allow six changes, I had used five. I am winning 1-0, I want the game to finish, I want to stop the game, I have to take one player to make the last change and I have to take the smallest player off because I know the game will end with long balls and throw-ins," he told reporters.
"I don't take Ibrahimovic or Fellaini for sure. The other ones, I change them all. So Mata, or Rashford, or Herrera, and Mata is the smallest one, so I went for that battle that they gave us in the box."
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored the winning goal for United after Jamie Vardy had earlier cancelled out Lingard's opener.
Barney Corkhill
