YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 6, ARMENPRESS. Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho says he was "protecting" Armenian Henrikh Mkhitaryan by not playing him at the start of Manchester United's Premier League campaign.

During the match with Leicester City Armenian international scored for the fifth time this season, and was unsurprisingly a topic of conversation in Mourinho's post-match press conference.

During the press conference, Mourinho explains exactly why Mkhitaryan was slowly introduced to his team.

Mourinho said: “Sometimes the best way to protect the players is not to play them. Your perspective is that if a player is not playing, the manager is disturbing him. But it's not true.

“Sometimes you don't play players and you protect them. Miki was being protected. He was adapting. You see the magic things on the pitch and I see other things that I want to see. Miki is playing really well”, he said as quoted by Manchester Evening news.

Manchester Untied won 3:0 against Leicester City on Sunday.