Jose Mourinho said he is prepared to sacrifice style for points in Manchester United's Premier League title bid.
United have made a blistering start to the season, winning their opening three matches, having scored 10 goals without conceding.
But as United prepare for Saturday's trip to Stoke City, manager Mourinho is ready to prioritize three points over the club's newfound attacking style of play.
"We try to play the best we can," Mourinho said. "We know that if you look in a pragmatic way, you see the last winners of the Premier League [Antonio Conte’s Chelsea], they did not play attacking football.
"They played defensive football and counter-attack football. So according to the results, that is the way to win the Premier League.
"We try to play according to the qualities of our players. We try to play positive, we try to play good, but we try to win. If one day to win we have to play defensive football, we have to do it."
Mourinho added: "If we go to Stoke and Stoke in some moments of the match, they put us under pressure and they are dominant, we have to be humble and we have to be pragmatic and we have to face the reality.
"If you ask me, are we going to go there and play with seven at the back, like some teams do, five plus two? No, we're not going to do that. We're going to try and play well and score goals.
"But if our opponent is better than us and dominant, we are humble enough to transform our way of playing to play for a result."