Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho, fired back at BT Sport pundits Gary Lineker, Paul Scholes and Rio Ferdinand, after Maroune Fellaini’s late winner secured Manchester United’s passage to the last-16 of the Champions League.
Mourinho picked up a crate of water bottles and hit it with great force at the ground following Fellaini’s goal.
Lineker, Scholes and Ferdinand all criticized the Portuguese’s reaction on the night, when he failed to hide his frustration at Marcus Rashford failing to take an early opportunity.
“Turn to the crowd and your own bench and shake your head in disgust at one of your own players, let alone a youngster,” Lineker tweeted along with a clip of the trio criticising the former Chelsea and Real Madrid boss.
Ferdinand immediately added: “That says it all, doesn’t it? He’s going to see that after the game. What type of message of confidence does that say to him?”
But Mourinho hit back in his post-match press conference.
“We don’t score enough goals but is not about Marcus.
“Is about us as a team, is very difficult for us to score goals. But Marcus makes the movements, makes the runs, works hard when the team has the ball and doesn’t have the ball.
“And I can never, never blame a player because of missing chances. Can I have on the touchline, where not a lot of the ones that comment [on] football, they were there? Not many of them were there, can myself or another manager have a reaction of frustration? I would invite that people to sit on the bench as managers.
“But I think maybe is better to have lots of holidays in Barbados and go to television screen and touch the electronic dummies, is much more comfortable than be on touchline like we managers we are.
“So I’m pretty sure that a proper football manager would never criticise another one for emotional reactions on the touchline because it’s deja vu for them. For the ones that have a nice life, is different,” Mourinho said.
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