Mourinho’s mind games over ref

JOSE MOURINHO has waded into the row over the appointment of Anthony Taylor as referee for Manchester United’s crunch clash at Liverpool tomorrow.

Taylor lives just six miles from Old Trafford and Mourinho says it will be, “difficult for him to have a good performance” following claims that he could be biased towards United.

“I think Mr Taylor is a very good referee but I think somebody with intention is putting pressure on him,” he said.

“I feel it will be difficult for him to have a very good performance.

“I have my view, but I’ve learned a lesson because many times I’ve been punished.

“So I don’t want to say anything about it.”

What Mourinho, no stranger to mind games, is carefully not saying is that Taylor could feel under such pressure to show no partiality towards United that it might work against his team.

Appointments are made by the Professional Game Match Officials Ltd.

Their former head, Keith Hackett, has criticised the decision to give such a potentially-explosive fixture to Taylor.

“No one is questioning his integrity,” Hackett said. “But what if something goes wrong?

“It would be those who appointed him who must take the blame for taking such an avoidable risk.”

Mourinho stresses that his players will maintain their discipline in what will be the most ferocious atmosphere of the season so far.

“That’s what we are doing the whole season,” he said. “Our disciplinary record is really, really good.

“We don’t have any problems in this area. We don’t press referees and we behave on the touchline.

“We are following everything told to us in the meetings we had with the Premier League and the referees.”

United have collected a total of only eight yellow cards in seven Premier League games this season, shared among just three players – Marouane Fellaini, Ander Herrera and Wayne Rooney.

It’s been another fraught week for the England skipper, but Mourinho doesn’t believe that being booed against Malta