Is it a sign of Victor’s character that he seemingly wasn’t affected by that game at Huddersfield?

I always knew he was mentally strong. Two weeks after that mistake, he put the national jersey on and played two World Cup play-off games against Italy without conceding a goal, sending his country to Russia 2018. Even at 23, he is thinking about tomorrow and not yesterday. Those two games helped him. He was brilliant alongside Andreas Granqvist and we went through because of them.



Do you feel he got better as the season went on?

I think he progressed and he still needs time. It is a tough task at United and, of course, I want him to do well because he is my fellow countryman. For me, a big part of his development is having a leader alongside him. At Benfica, he had Luisao and with Sweden, he has the captain, Granqvist. I would love to see him with Eric Bailly at United. That combination would help his progress, massively.



It is clear that Jose Mourinho trusts him, particularly when teams allow us to play the ball out from the back…

Of course he does. Victor is good with his feet and in England you have to defend a lot more than you do in Portugal, where you have the ball all of the time. But he has shown for Sweden that he can do both. We had France and Holland in the qualifying group, finished second and then beat Italy to reach the World Cup. That means he didn’t make mistakes at the back, like people go on about at Huddersfield. Is he the only player to make a mistake? Bigger players have made bigger mistakes and have still come back. That makes you a winner and makes you a Manchester United player.