Jose Mourinho Praises 'Genius' Nemanja Matic After Manchester United Debut

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho praised new signing Nemanja Matic as "a genius" after the Serb debuted in the Red Devils' 2-1 pre-season friendly win over Sampdoria in Dublin on Wednesday. 

The former Chelsea midfielder played the first 45 minutes, and although Mourinho admitted he is not match fit yet, the Red Devils boss was full of praise for Matic, per Rob Dawson of ESPN.co.uk: "He needs time but [his] experience, intelligence, a genius in the way he thinks—he thinks football. We will help him to be ready sooner rather than later."

Matic, 29, became United's third key signing of the summer on Monday—following the captures of Victor Lindelof and Romelu Lukaku—when he moved from Chelsea to Old Trafford for £40 million.

As well as lauding Matic, Mourinho also credited his club for getting him three of his four key targets, although he stressed he would still like to complete the quartet before the transfer window closes, per Dawson: "To get three out of four I thank the club for that, I will be happier if they get me four of four but they did a great effort for me."

Henrikh Mkhitaryan opened the scoring for United at the Aviva Stadium on Wednesday, and Juan Mata netted the winner nine minutes from time after Dennis Praet had equalised for Sampdoria.

Per football writer Tom McDermott, Matic slotted seamlessly into Mourinho's system:

The Serbia international has thrived under Mourinho before at Chelsea and will likely play a key role for United in defensive midfield when the 2017-18 season gets under way.

The Manchester outfit open their Premier League campaign against West Ham United at home on August 13 after their UEFA Super Cup clash with Real Madrid in Macedonia on Tuesday.