Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho was unhappy with questions about his decision to bring on Marouane Fellaini as a late substitute in the draw at Everton.
Fellaini replaced Henrikh Mkhitaryan in the 85th minute at Everton with United in front through Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s first-half goal. Two minutes later, the Belgium midfielder collided with Idrissa Gueye in the box and the home side rescued a 1-1 draw when Leighton Baines converted the subsequent penalty.
Invited to justify his decision to send for Fellaini late in the game, Mourinho said: “I thought you would know more about football than you do, the answer is obvious.
“Everton is not a passing team any more like they were in the past. Everton is a team that plays direct: goalkeeper direct, Ashley Williams direct, Funes Mori direct. Everything direct.
“When you have on the bench a player with two metres [in height] you play the player in front of the defensive line to help the team to win the match.”
Mourinho went on to suggest sides managed by him were not given a fair rub of the green by the English football media, adding a side-swipe at unnamed teams but his comments seemed to be directed at former club Chelsea’s style of play under Antonio Conte.
“When my teams are playing pragmatic football and winning matches and winning titles you say that is not nice and not right,” he said. “Then my team play very well — and is a huge change to the last two or three years [at Man United] — now you say what matters is to get the result no matter what.
“In this moment we have teams getting results that defend with 11, kick ball and attack the space on the counter-attack… it is phenomenal, it’s beautiful. You have to make a decision.”
United had tweeted congratulations to former Everton player Fellaini for making his 100th United appearance just seconds before he fouled Gueye.
Asked for his view of the penalty and then a crude first-half challenge that should have seen Marcos Rojo sent off, the Portuguese twice answered: “I didn’t see it.”
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