Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho goes on incredible five minute rant defending Marcus Rashford treatment and blasts ‘obsessed’ TV pundits
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JOSE MOURINHO has blasted TV pundits and accused them of being obsessed with him.
Mourinho launched his five minute attack after being angered at accusations that he does not give Marcus Rashford enough games.
Jamie Carragher spoke about that this week on Sky TV after Rashford had scored for the second England game running against Switzerland.
Carragher even suggested the 20-year-old front man needed to move to Everton to get more game time.
But Mourinho said: “Some of the persons everybody knows they have double salaries, they work also for the clubs and of course they are not independent and they conduct things in the direction they want.
“That's obvious, human, is natural, not ethical but I accept. The ones that wake up in the morning and the first thing that comes into their mind is Jose Mourinho and Manchester United, I feel sorry for them.
"There are much more interesting things to wake up and think about that Jose Mourinho and football.”
Mourinho said he even expects pundits to criticise him for not playing Rashford at Watford tomorrow even though the player is suspended for three matches after being sent off at Burnley.
He said: “I think I can expect that Sunday I'm going to be highly criticised for not playing him because some of the boys are really obsessed with me and some of them have a problem with some compulsive lies, so I can expect that Sunday some of them will wake up in the morning and the first thing they think is Jose Mourinho,
“So I can imagine on Sunday I am going to be criticised for not playing Marcus but is not my fault, he’s suspended, so probably you should remind them he is suspended and cannot play.”
Mourinho came into his press conference at Carrington armed with statistics to back up his argument that he has given Rashford plenty of game time.
He said: “In season 2016-17 Marcus Rashford played 32 Premier League matches, 11 Europa League matches, including the final, three FA Cup matches, six League Cup matches and the Community Shield.
“He had 53 appearances but if you want to take to the mins of play, he played 3068 and if you want to divide that by 90 min matches, he played 34.2 matches of 90 min matches in 16-17.
“In 17-18, 35 Premier League matches, eight in Champion League, five in the FA Cup, three League Cup matches and the European Super Cup final.
“He played a total of 52 matches with 2,676 mins, if you divide that by 90, it gives you 29.7 matches, so
with me, in two seasons, he had 105 appearances, 5744 mins, 63.7 matches of 90 mins, including five finals, so the people that is speaking about these minutes, I think they are a bit confused.
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“Marcus Rashford is not Dominic Solanke, not Ruben Loftus-Cheek, not Dominic Calvert Lewin, he is Marcus Rashford, Manchester United player, with an incredible number of appearances and an incredible number of minutes played at the highest level in the best possible competitions.”
The problem for Rashford, however has come with the arrival of Sanchez in particular as he has started just eight games since the Chilean joined the club last January from Arsenal.
Mourinho also joked yesterday that the obsession with him has stretched to people wanting him to take a dive outside Wembley.
He was filmed falling over a red rope as he entered the stadium before the game against Spain.
Mourinho said: “People call me and ask me to fall at Wembley so they could speak about me.
“It was a good dive, no penalty, maybe a yellow card. I did protect my phones.”