Jose Mourinho gave his weekly Friday news conference a couple hours ago and the session was defined by an epic four minute plus rant that we’ll probably be talking about all weekend. Mourinho gave a strong, impassioned defense of how he’s allocated playing time for forward Marcus Rashford, who is out of tomorrow’s game at Watford due to a suspension.
Around the 2:45 mark in the video below, Mourinho was asked his thoughts on Rashford having a great showing with England this past international break. He began his response by saying he will be criticized for not playing Rashford in the match tomorrow, despite the Englishman’s ineligibility for selection.
“I think I can expect that Sunday I’m going to be highly criticized 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,” Mourinho began.
“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 criticized for not playing Marcus but it’s not my fault, he’s suspended.”
“Probably you (the media) should remind them he is suspended and cannot play. His performances with England, of course I’m happy, he played well, competed well, he scored and especially in a period where he comes with some sadness after his suspension it was very good that he did that.”
Mourinho then launched into a long monologue in which he read a set of statistics, with the aim of hitting back at those who say he underplays the homegrown attacking player. Clearly, he came prepared for this.
“If you don’t mind losing a couple of minutes, I’m going to do something not for you [the media] but the United fans and I think I hold myself to the United fans and for them I am going to spend two minutes with you,” Mourinho continued.
“In 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 the minutes of play, he played 3,068 and if you want to divide that by 90 minutes matches, he played 34.2 matches of 90 minutes matches in 2016-17.
“In 2017-18, 35 Premier League matches, eight in the Champions League, five in FA Cup, three League Cup matches and the European Super Cup final.”
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“He played a total of 52 matches with 2,676 minutes, if you divide that by 90 minutes, gives 29.7 matches. So with me, in two seasons, he had 105 appearances, 5,774 mins, 63.7 matches of 90 minutes, including five finals, so the people that are speaking about these minutes, I think they are a bit confused.”
Got all that?
Take a deep breath and try to consume all of that.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, is currently a regular contributor to SB Nation, WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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