More perfect than Pep? Jose learns to behave
Jose Mourinho insists his touchline behaviour has improved so much, he should be given an award!
While many of his top-six rivals have been seen in angry confrontations with referees and fourth officials this season, the Manchester United boss says he’s made it his business to become The Perfect One.
“I am fully committed to win the award for the best behaved manager on the touchline,” he declares. “Seriously!”
“They should give an award to the guy that that behaves best on the touchline and it should be the fourth officials who vote.
“I’m pretty sure that I would win. I’m serious! I didn’t create one problem to one fourth official apart from my red card at Southampton when I put a foot on the pitch.
“I’m not free of losing my temper, my control, in one match. I’m not going from the Bad One to the Perfect One, but I try. I prepare myself and I make an effort.”
Mourinho also takes a thinly-disguised swipe at cross-city rival Pep Guardiola, who has been vocal in complaining about the meaty tackling dished out to his star players.
“Maybe I need to cry a little bit more, I don’t know,” he says.
“I feel English football has some cultural heritage, tradition, and there are some qualities I really like in the game.
“In this country, the intensity and the aggression are a great things and the referees are there to sort the good aggression from the really dangerous situations.
“The culture the refs try to put into practice is also part of our football. Sometimes they make a mistake, but it’s isolated.
“I don’t like the word ‘protect’ because it looks like the referees have to protect only the top players.
“I think that, on the pitch, every player is the same. They can’t say that this guy is very talented, so I have to protect him.
“What do you want the defenders to do? To let the top players play with freedom?
“I think it’s the nature of the game that the more you fear, the more you target, and you fear the most talented players. So it’s normal that there will be a different approach with those players.
“But for the refs, every player must be treated the same and according to the rules.
“We don’t need managers to be speaking about this when it’s obvious that the referees must take care of it, and I think they try.”
Mourinho, who today takes his team to Newcastle, recently admitted that neighbours City are in control of the Premier League.
As a result he points out that the Champions League might be the competition in which United see the immediate benefit of new signing Alexis Sanchez.
“Alexis has a level of experience in the Champions League that my attacking players don’t have,” he says.
“At Barcelona, he had a few years at a club that felt the responsibility to play to win it.
“Romelu Lukaku is in his first season in the Champions League, Marcus Rashford maybe played a couple of matches with Mr Van Gaal, the same with Jesse Lingard, and Anthony Martial one season with Monaco and a couple of matches here.
“Juan Mata obviously has more because he’s a winner of the trophy, but we don’t have many players with that know-how.
“With Alexis, a part of his talent is that he knows what the Champions League is and it’s important because when you go to the last eight or semi-finals that you have players who know how to compete at that level.”