Standup9ja - Courtois: Mourinho Is Making United Play Dirty
Thibaut Courtois believes Mourinho employed mind games and
made his players play dirty in their 1-0 FA Cup loss to Chelsea at the Stamford
Bridge.
Ander Herrera was sent off in the first half after two
bookable offences on Hazard, with United committing unnecessary fouls.
Courtois believes Manchester United played Mourinho’s style
in the quarterfinals clash against Chelsea.
“They made a lot of fouls and they were very hard,” Courtois
said. “This was in the style of Mourinho but I think that Ander Herrera paid
the price for his team-mates because I think Phil Jones made a fifth foul on
Eden Hazard and then Herrera made another foul on him seconds later.
“Then the referee must give a yellow card and, unfortunately
for Herrera, he already had one.
“United tried to get into our minds, with the fouling and
kicking to try to destabilise us. They are the mind-games that they tried to
play – they get that from their manager.
“We didn’t fall into their trap, we played our game and did
it our way – as we have been doing for six months or so. We did it well.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t find another goal and finish it earlier, but I think
it is good to go to Wembley and the mission is to go to the final and win it.”
“We didn’t know beforehand about United’s aggression,” he
added. “You can expect Manchester to play one of two ways. They can play their
footballing way but, obviously, without Anthony Martial and Zlatan Ibrahimovic,
then they can play a different game.
“That’s what they did and I think they tried to defend well.
In the beginning, we could see how they were playing and we have players with
football intelligence who can handle that.
“I think the last time we played them, they didn’t expect us
to be so good. When we played it was the beginning of playing 3-4-3 and
obviously they came with a plan to put Matteo Darmian and Phil Jones on Willian
and Eden. So it was hard to find the space, but after that we did.”
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