...but Mourinho frets over ref justice
MANCHESTER UNITED manager Jose Mourinho has said that referee Anthony Taylor has been given an impossible job taking charge of tomorrow’s big Premier League game at Liverpool.
Taylor’s appointment caused an outcry among Liverpool fans because he is based in Greater Manchester, leading to former Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) chief Keith Hackett to also criticise the decision as potentially ‘intolerable’.
Now Mourinho has weighed in by claiming the fuss could affect Taylor’s performance for what is regarded as the most hostile fixtures in the English calendar.
‘I think Mr Taylor is a very good referee but I think somebody with intention is putting such a pressure on him that I feel it will be difficult for him to have a very good performance,’ he said.
‘I have my view but I understood and I learned a lesson by being punished so many times for some words so I don’t want to say anything about it.’
It is unclear whether Mourinho is unhappy with the actual decision to choose Taylor — an Altrincham fan who lives six miles away from Old Trafford — or those who have questioned it.
Liverpool have previously raised the issue of where referees are based. After a 2-1 defeat against Manchester City in 2013, then manager Brendan Rodgers launched a scathing attack on Lee Mason of Bolton, saying: ‘Hopefully we don’t have another Greater Manchester referee again on a Liverpool-Manchester game.’
Now it seems Mourinho will take his team to Anfield for his first Liverpool-United fixture fearing Taylor could subconsciously make decisions to prove he is not biased towards the visitors.
He has tried to choose his words carefully to avoid another in a long line of FA punishments but has clearly felt he needed to mention the situation to try to protect his team as they head to Merseyside.
Last season, Mourinho was fined £50,000 and given a one-game stadium ban for saying officials were ‘afraid’ to give Chelsea penalties following a 3-1 defeat against Southampton.
In total, he racked up £140,000 in fines during his second spell at Chelsea for remarks made to officials during the matches or about them afterwards.