Jose Mourinho introduced Marouane Fellaini in the second half, but the Belgian conceded a late penalty. PHOTO/SKY
MANCHESTER, United Kingdom, Dec 5- An angry Jose Mourinho has defended his decision to replace Henrikh Mkhitaryan with Marouane Fellaini in the dying minutes of Manchester United’s 1-1 draw with Everton at Goodison Park on Sunday.
With three points seemingly in the bag after Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s 42nd-minute lobbed goal, the Portuguese boss brought on Marcus Rashford for Anthony Martial on 83 minutes and Fellaini for Mkhitaryan two minutes later.
While Rashford conceded possession a number of times during his short time on the field, the tall Belgian gave away a penalty that saw United drop a vital two points.
Fellaini upended Idrissa Gueye in the box, in the 89th minute, with Leighton Baines duly equalising from the spot.
After the match, a visibly annoyed Mourinho responded to why he brought on the former Everton midfielder by saying: “What do you mean by that [question]? I thought you would know more about football than you do because the answer is obvious.
“Everton is not a passing team like they were. Everton is a team that plays direct. Everything is direct. Goalkeeper direct. Ashley Williams direct. Funes Mori direct.
“Everything is direct and when a team is losing and plays direct intensifies the direct football, and you have a player on the bench with two metres, you play that player in front of the defensive line to help the team win the match.”
Mourinho insisted his side were the better team and praised his players for a good performance.
“It’s another game with a very good performance in a very difficult place to play, in a very emotional stadium, against a team full of good players,” he added.
So, it was a very good performance but a bad result in relation to the performance. We were the best team by far but we didn’t win.”
United have now drawn their last three Premier League matches, but Mourinho feels his side were the better side in all three games – but knows it is results that count and not how they perform.
“If you tell me that in any one of our draws, the opponent was closer to winning than us, I will tell you that is completely untrue,” he explained.
“In every one of our draws, we were much more closer to winning than the opponent and we deserve to win these matches. I repeat, this season what matters is the results, it’s not the quality of football.”
