Jesse Lingard admitted he thoroughly enjoyed the freedom he was given in Manchester United's win on Sunday.

The Red Devils defeated Middlesbrough 3-1 at the Riverside Stadium thanks to goals from Marouane Fellaini, Lingard himself and Antonio Valencia, while Rusy Gestede was on target for the home team to make it 2-1.

Manager Jose Mourinho made some alterations to his starting XI, freshening things up from Thursday's hard-fought Europa League win over Rostov, and it worked a treat as Lingard played a free-wheeling attacking role alongside Juan Mata and behind Marcus Rashford.

He also spoke of the importance of having Fellaini and Michael Carrick in holding roles between the defence and attack.

"There was a lot of fresh legs today. He (Mourinho) rested a few players but the players that played today were fit and ready," he told MUTV.

"Me, Juan and Marcus had that free role today.

"If the defender went to Juan, I could come inside and was pretty much free all the time so it was good to have that rotation but also, we had Felli and Carras to back the play up as well."

United moved up to fifth on the table with their 14th win of the season which extended their unbeaten streak in the league to 18 matches.