They certainly caught his eye.
Jose Mourinho may not have a reputation for nurturing talent, but he was purring about two of Manchester United’s youngsters after a 2-0 victory in his first friendly game in charge of the club.
Both Axel Tuanzebe and Andrea Periera were singled out by the Portuguese after a useful run-out against a committed Wigan Athletic side.
Tuanzebe is an highly-rated 18-year-old central defender who can fill in as a defensive midfielder, whilst 20-year-old Pereira is a playmaker who was born in Belgium but represents Brazil at youth level.
The latter scored the second goal in the victory with a sharp finish in the second-half, and Mourinho praised his “amazing talent”, with particular emphasis on his “incredible” vision and technique.
What a hit! @AndrinhoPereira doubles #MUFC’s lead. See the game live on #MUTVHD: https://t.co/FbgThKueDt https://t.co/tHwi38bkeA
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) July 16, 2016
As for Tuanzebe, he only came on for the final ten minutes of the game, but that was enough to get Mourinho raving about his potential.
“You can play 90 minutes or one minute and sometimes one minute is enough. With Axel, ten minutes is enough! The potential is there, you can see it immediately…if anyone sees him for the first time, ten minutes is enough to see the potential.”
Interesting stuff. You can watch his comments below:
Encouraging stuff for the new boss.
