Jose Mourinho praised Paul Pogba for his inclination to take Manchester United’s penalties but believes the Frenchman may need to alter his technique.

Pogba opened the scoring in United’s 2-1 victory over Everton but only in fortuitous circumstances, converting on the rebound after his spot-kick had been brilliantly saved by Toffees goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.

The World Cup winner’s long, stuttered run-up, in which he took marginal steps forward without ever really accelerating towards the ball, attracted criticism and derision on social media.

It was his second miss in five attempts from 12 yards for United this season though Mourinho was happy with the midfielder for fronting up, even if he thinks a change of approach might be necessary.

“The thing I like is the desire to take it,” Mourinho said. “I don’t like Mickey Mouses: fragile, afraid to go, I don’t take penalties. I don’t like that, I like the player that I want to take it.

“Paul wants to take and that for me is fantastic. If he misses, he misses. Can he improve his penalty? I think he can.

“I think the goalkeepers don’t move and they are waiting for his decision so I think he probably has to learn from that. But for me the most important thing is next time we have a penalty he wants to go again.”

Mourinho said: “We are playing OK, we are not as rock solid as I would like.

“We don’t have the killer instinct that I would like. Some teams with three chances they score three goals and some teams without the ball can resist and keep clean sheets all the time.

“For us it is almost an impossible mission to keep a clean sheet even with the phenomenal goalkeeper we have and to score goals is really difficult for us.”