The crying game... but not for Jose

PROBABLE TEAMS ‘SANCHEZ CAN HANDLE ROUGH STUFF’

NEWCASTLE v MAN UTD

Sanchez was given a brutal welcome to Manchester United by Huddersfield last week when he became the first Premier League player this season to be fouled seven games in a single game.

In his three appearances for United since his stunning arrival from Arsenal last month, the Chilean frontman (above) has drawn 15 free-kicks and is being fouled on average once every 17 minutes.

But while Manchester City rival Pep Guardiola has called on officials to get tough on English football’s hatchet men, Mourinho believes that it’s a “beautiful” part of the culture.

And in a thinly veiled dig at fellow bosses who whinge when the boot goes in, the United boss insists that Sanchez can look after himself. Mourinho said: “Maybe his [Sanchez] manager needs to cry a little bit more. I don’t know. I have always liked English football. I feel that English football has some cultural heritage and tradition and that there are some qualities I really like in the game. “Maybe I have to cry a little bit to try to protect my players because you can see the way Alexis was welcomed.

“But he’s a tough boy. He’s a pure guy. He copes with it. There were some bad tackles against Huddersfield and the referees have to .... I don’t like the word ‘protect’, because it looks like they have to protect only the top players – and I think that on the pitch every player is the same.

“We don’t need managers to be speaking about this when it’s an obvious thing that the referees must take care of it – which I think they try to do.

“Referees know the rules and whether the cards have to come or