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Jose Mourinho says Eric Bailly must grow into the 'heavy' Manchester United shirt following his big-money move to Old Trafford.

The Special One made the 22-year-old his first signing as United boss when the Red Devils splashed out more than £30million to land the Villarreal centre-back.

Bailly featured in Mourinho's starting XI for Saturday's 2-0 win at Wigan , and explained the Ivory Coast international needs more game time to get on the same wavelength as his new teammates.

"It is the first time he wears a heavy shirt like the United shirt is," he told MUTV.

"He can't speak English, he just communicates with the ones that are French-spoken or Spanish so for him step by step that's the reason why I will give him more than 45 minutes.

"He's one of the players who I want to give 65/70 [minutes] because more than others [he] needs to play, needs to feel it and needs to start communicating."

While Bailly will face much sterner tests when the Premier League season starts - and as soon as next week against Borussia Dortmund and Manchester City - the new signing breezed through his first appearance in the 'heavy' shirt.

He was untroubled at the back alongside Daley Blind in the first half and Phil Jones after the break, and earned cheers after nonchalantly flicking the ball away from surrounding Wigan players in one passage of play.

In pictures: Wigan 0-2 Manchester United

The player was happy with the "good vibes" from his debut and received a good reputation from the travelling support.

As Mourinho looks to delete the question mark, he was left encouraged by what he saw from Bailly at the DW Stadium.

"The way our fans told him they like it when I changed him is enough.

(Image: Man Utd via Getty)

"Of course, he's is a very young boy coming from a completely different environment but you could see what he is in this moment.

"I will give him everything to try to make him better and better and better like I did previously with other very young central defenders I had in my hands, like for example Varane.

"I will try to make him the best I can but the reality is that he showed all the potential that we saw when we decided to buy him."