Jose Mourinho has rated Nemanja Matic as the best player he has ever worked with after reuniting with him at United.

The Portuguese manager has worked with a number of high profile and talented players over the course of his managerial career at Porto, Chelsea, Inter, Madrid and United.

Mourinho moved quickly to acquire Matic in the summer from Chelsea for ?40 million and says the Serbia international is the best he has worked with.

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

“The press wants a story, the press wants blood.

“My blood, or his blood, or both. 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.”