WATCH - Jose Mourinho is presented with a bottle of birthday cider...but he seems less than impressed
Jose Mourinho didn't seem keen to sample his bottle of cider
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho seemed a little bemused as he was presented with a bottle of 'Birthday Brew' cider as he paid a visit to Somerset for his side's FA Cup fourth round tie against Yeovil on Friday night.
United ran out comfortable 4-0 winners on a night when Alexis Sanchez made an impressive debut for United, with Mourinho offered the chance to toast his 55th birthday after he was presented with a bottle of the local brew by the BBC.
Wine connoisseur Mourinho suggested he would not be cracking open the cider any time soon, but he did thank the gift bearing for his generosity.
"I'll keep it but I'm not trying it," he declared, as he looked at the bottom with more than a little confusion.
Mourinho went on to hail "tough guy" Sanchez for keeping his head amid Yeovil's robust tactics to lay on two assists in his United debut.
United coasted to a 4-0 win to stroll into the FA Cup fifth round, with new boy Sanchez teeing up Marcus Rashford and Ander Herrera, before Jesse Lingard and Romelu Lukaku glossed the score late on.
Mourinho believes Yeovil defender Nathan Smith was lucky to avoid a red card for a tackle that momentarily upended Sanchez - but hailed his new striker for brushing off the incident without reacting.
"I was impressed with Alexis' attitude, but I think I also did my job well in telling the players they should be ready for that, and never react," said Mourinho.
"Sometimes the top players lose their head, and then they are the ones to be punished.
"I understand the decision not to show the red card because this is a special day, and 10 against 11; that would be game over, but the players do need a bit of protection.
"Alexis is a tough guy, he has a good mentality and I'm happy with everything he did."
Sanchez jumped straight into the United line-up at the first opportunity after completing the deal that saw Henrikh Mkhitaryan move in the other direction to Arsenal and Mourinho saluted the 29-year-old for fitting straight into his side's style of play.
"I'm very happy; I think it (Alexis' performance) is no surprise for anyone," said Mourinho.
"Three-and-a-half years in the Premier League playing every weekend, everyone knows what kind of player Alexis is. There's no question mark about adaptation to English football. No surprise for us.
"He's a fantastic player, he's shown that for the past three days. An amazing addition for us. He needed to play, we spoke; he needed to play.
"It was a professional performance; the players knew it would be difficult until we scored the first goal.
"They were well organised they knew what to do on the pitch. I was listening to their manager in their technical area, and from what he was asking, he was well organised."
