Rohan Sengupta
Jose Mourinho has aimed a cheeky dig at Manchester City by saying the difference between his team and Pep Guardiola’s is ‘a question of behaviour and diversity’. In a tense press conference, Mourinho appeared to question City’s values in the wake of the nuisance that erupted after their 2-1 win at Old Trafford on Sunday.
Post the derby win, the wild celebrations from City sparked a 30-man scuffle in the corridor outside the dressing rooms. City assistant coach Mikel Arteta was reportedly left with a cut face, while Mourinho had water and milk thrown at him as the fracas intensified.
The FA have both clubs for their observations as a part of an investigation.
The United boss was initially reluctant to speak about the post-match incident, having arrived 16 minutes late.
Mourinho was quoted by The Telegraph:
“This press conference is pre-Bournemouth, it’s not post-Manchester City. That was already done and this press conference is pre-Bournemouth. I know [about the headlines] but I keep saying this is pre-Bournemouth.”
When informed that City boss Pep had addressed the issue in his press conference, Mourinho opened up saying:
“He says he says. I’m not here to comment on his words. The only thing I can say is that for me was just a question of diversity, diversity in behaviours, diversity in education, just that and nothing more than that.”
Asked if the pain of losing to bitter rivals City would give United an added motivation, he replied:
“As always, when you lose probably you have a little bit more desire to win it. Nobody likes to lose once or lose twice. It’s something that belongs to every team in the world: when you lose the match, the next one you have extra to give.
“The motivation is based on we want to try to win all the time and, I repeat, when you have a bad result we don’t want to have two bad results.
“We lost against Chelsea and the next match we had a little bit extra to try to win. Chelsea lost this week and for sure the next match they will have a little more to give.”
“Last season we drew at home against Bournemouth; let’s try to do better,” the boss added.
When asked about Marcos Rojo’s fitness, Jose said:
“He’s a brave guy. I don’t know – let’s see if he can be ready for the match. but if he’s not ready, we have other alternatives to play.”
While Rojo remains a doubt, United are boosted by Phil Jones’s return to fitness. Jose added:
“Phil Jones was already on the bench [at the weekend]. The injury is behind [him] and hopefully, he can stay fit.”
While the manager didn’t speak anything regarding Marouane Fellaini’s absence, Michael Carrick and Eric Bailly are out against Bournemouth.
Let’s hope the boys put the derby defeat behind and move on. There’s still a good chunk of the season left to play and let’s hope things turn in our favour, starting from Wednesday.
