Jose Mourinho defended his decision to send on Marouane Fellaini in Manchester United’s 1-1 draw at Everton on Sunday.
The midfielder conceded a penalty moments after his 85th-minute arrival – allowing Everton to snatch a point.
Asked about his decision, United manager Mourinho said the reason for introducing Fellaini was “obvious” due to his height and Everton’s approach.
“I thought you would know more about football than you do,” the Portuguese added at a post-match news conference.
“Everton is not a passing team any more like they were in the past. Everton is a team that plays direct: goalkeeper direct, Ashley Williams direct, Ramiro Funes Mori direct. Everything direct.
“When you have on the bench a player with two metres [in height] you play the player in front of the defensive line to help the team to win the match.”
United took the lead at Goodison Park through Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s lobbed finish and were looking to wrap up only their third league win in 11 games when Fellaini replaced Henrikh Mkhitaryan in the closing minutes.
Just two minutes later, Fellaini went in with a clumsy challenge on Idrissa Gueye and Leighton Baines equalised from the spot.
The draw was United’s sixth since the start of October, while Mourinho himself has now won just nine of his last 30 league matches in charge of Chelsea and Manchester United.
“We are not getting the results we deserve,” he said. “We are getting draws but deserving victory.
“Opposition are leaving the stadium super happy with points they don’t deserve and we are leaving the stadium with a feeling we deserved more.”
The 53-year-old manager went on to criticise the media’s coverage of his results.
“When my teams are playing pragmatic football and winning matches and winning titles you say that is not nice and not right,” he said.
“Then my team play very well – and is a huge change to the last two or three years [at United] – now you say what matters is to get the result no matter what.
“In this moment we have teams getting results that defend with 11, kick ball and attack the space on the counter-attack… it is phenomenal, it’s beautiful.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
