Mourinho clears up decision not to send off Klopp

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Jose Mourinho nowadays often does this thing where he tries to come across as a valiant, humble victor when his teams win.

It’s a bit weird and doesn’t really suit him, in all honesty.

But our gripe after the weekend defeat to Manchester United is not actually at him in any way – but at the referee Craig Pawson.

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Fourth Official Martin Atkinson could have sent Jurgen Klopp off too, after he left his technical area to berate one of his players – with Pawson originally assuming the verbal volley was aimed at his direction.

It wasn’t though, and Mourinho has therefore claimed the correct decision was made:

“Probably you are not expecting my answer — I’m happy with the decision,” Mourinho said during his post-match news conference.

“Because [Klopp] was not speaking against the referee. He was upset with a player and the same happened to me against Crystal Palace, where I was upset with my player and therefore they [the officials] understood that too.

“I think [fourth official] Martin Atkinson, after so many years of this, made the right decision. I saw it. [Klopp] was very upset with his player and not at the referee.

“If you leave the technical area by a couple of metres — or in this case, 20 metres — but to speak to your own player and not to complain about the referee’s decision, they made the right decision.”

Klopp, of course, needs to be careful – as other officials would have given him his marching orders.

Hopefully next weekend against Watford he won’t need to get so angry.

The Hornets are fighting relegation, but we need revenge for the Opening Day 3-3 draw in which they scored an offside goal at the death.

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