Jose Mourinho clarifies why he made shushing gesture after Manchester United's 1-0 victory over Tottenham
United manager insists he has a 'good relationship' with Mauricio Pochettino and that he did not tell Spurs' bench to be quiet, but instead sent a message to his critics
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Your support makes all the difference.Jose Mourinho said he was sending a message to critics to “calm down” and “don’t speak too much” when he made a shushing gesture to the camera after Manchester United’s 1-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur.
That victory came after a week when the Portuguese had been widely criticised for the nature of his side’s performances in the 0-0 draw at Liverpool, and then the 2-1 defeat at Huddersfield. He responded with a fine win over another top-six side, and a few comments on top of that.
“Some people speak too much, calm down, relax a little bit,” Mourinho said. “Don't speak too much, speak, speak, speak, relax. Relax a little bit, don't be so nervous. Don't be so excited.
Mourinho made a point of saying it was not directed towards the opposition.
“The opposition bench? No. The opposition bench did their job, super correct, has yet to arrive the match where myself, Mauricio, my staff and his staff have no problem, we played against each other so many times since Spain, and we have a really good relation, we lost, we win, I don't know if we draw also, and we are always correct with each other and once more I'm even happier because we beat a very good team. I like the team very, very much.
“I like a lot of [our] performance independent of the result, if the result is 0-0 or 1-1 my feelings with the players and the team would be the same because they gave absolutely everything, every ball was like the most important ball of their career, the concentration and focus was there and we cannot forget the quality of the team we were playing against.”
Mourinho also praised match-winner Anthony Martial, who had been brought on as a substitute for Marcus Rashford on 70 minutes, a decision that was initially booed by some at Old Trafford. The Portuguese also explained the rationale for that.
“He is the same position as Marcus, but he's more comfortable than Marcus dropping in between the lines having the ball and have the ball and not just try to attack space and I was telling him to do that but, at the same time, to play from [Romelu] Lukaku in that against three very good central defenders but against three central defenders who had a hard match against Lukaku and Rashford, so he comes, and okay, probably a lucky shot but the movement is good, the desire is good and the goal is the goal that gets us two more points than the 0-0.”
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