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Manchester United head coach Jose Mourinho says he was "protecting" Henrikh Mkhitaryan by not playing him at the start of Manchester United's Premier League campaign.

The Armenian captain and Manchester united midfielder is becoming an increasingly important cog in Mourinho's United side, and scored the opener in their 3-0 win over Leicester City on Sunday. According to the Daily Mirror, the Portuguese explained during the post-match conference exactly why Mkhitaryan was slowly introduced to his team.

"Sometimes the best way to protect players is not to play them," said Mourinho, as quoted by the source.

"I think in your chair, your perspective is always 'if a player is not playing the manager is disturbing him', but this is not true.Sometimes we don't play players, we protect them, and Mkhitaryan was one of these cases.

"He was being protected and he was adapting and I can see not just what you see, because you see the magic things he can do on the pitch.

"But I also see other things that I want to see and Mkhitaryan is playing really, really well."