Jose Mourinho hails Nemanja Matic as best player he's ever worked with

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Jose Mourinho has hailed Nemanja Matic as the best player he has ever worked with during his career as a manager.

The Portuguese brought Matic to Manchester United this summer in a £40m deal having spent two seasons together at Stamford Bridge.

The Serbian has quickly settled into life at Old Trafford, bringing greater cohesion and discipline to United’s midfield unit with the side currently sat top of the Premier League on 10 points.

Mourinho has been forthcoming in his praise for Matic, who he describes as “one of my guys”.

“Matic, I cannot say that I had better guys than him in my career,” Mourinho recently told The Times.

“And he has with me something which marks forever, which was a match where he was on the bench, I play him minute 45 and I took him off minute 70, 75.

“He was really sad. I was also sad because it’s not something nice and it’s something that I did only twice in my career.

“But the next day he comes to me and he says, ‘I’m not happy, but it’s my fault. I’m not happy with what you did to me, but it’s my fault, because the way I was playing I can understand the change. So let’s keep going’.

“We didn’t keep going for a long time because a few weeks later I was sacked.

“But again he was one of ‘my guys’, was one of the guys that we kept close during these years even not working together. So I know that the big man is there, even with more maturity.”

Matic featured in United’s 2-2 draw with Stoke on Saturday and admitted afterwards that his side can’t afford to be dropping points against teams such as the Potters if they’re to stand any chance of winning the league this season.

United are still top of the Premier League on goal difference, but Matic was frustrated by the result.

“It was a tough game,” said Matic to MUTV. “To be honest, it’s always a tough game when you come to this stadium. Stoke are a good team, so it was difficult, but we managed to get a point.

“If we want to be champions, we have to win games like this because in these games, if you win, you are champion.

“We have to know against teams like this you have to have a little bit more, you have to be concentrated and of course we’re not happy with a point.”