Just because a decision you make leads to disaster, it doesn’t mean you made the wrong call. After all, as the old saying goes, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” When Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho subbed on Marouane Fellaini late in today’s match at Everton, it was the right call, according to club legend Gary Neville.
The iconic member of the famed Class of ’92 made a scathing critique of Marouane Fellaini, referring to the Belgian midfielder as “pathetic” and “garbage.” However, Neville repeatedly said during his scalding critique that Mourinho did the right thing to bring him on.
The manager himself has no regrets about bringing on Marouane Fellaini, despite the atrocity that soon ensued after the substitute came on. United were up 1-0 until Fellaini committed a cheap challenge, gave away an easy penalty to the Toffees, leading to a Leighton Baines equalizer, and the Red Devils dropping two points that they had easily in hand.
Mourinho defended that decision was pressed in the post match interview session.
“Everton is not a passing team any more like they were in the past. Everton is a team that plays direct: goalkeeper direct, Ashley Williams direct, Ramiro Funes Mori direct. Everything direct.”
“When you have on the bench a player with two metres [in height] you play the player in front of the defensive line to help the team to win the match.”
The Portugese added that the decision was “obvious” due to the height of Marouane Fellaini and the approach Everton was taking.
“I thought you would know more about football than you do,” Mourinho said in defensive condescension to the reporter.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.