“There were a lot of good messages about the United game at first and then, when the news came out about Mourinho, I had messages saying: ‘That’s your fault!’ But this is football sometimes.
LONDON, United Kingdom, Dec 21 – Xherdan Shaqiri is getting a lot of slack for his role in Jose Mourinho’s dismissal as Manchester United manager.
The former Stoke City attacker was a second-half substitute at Anfield and came on to good effect with two goals for a 3-1 win to put Liverpool back on top of the Premier League and 19 points ahead of United.
Mourinho was sacked the following Tuesday, leaving Shaqiri inundated with messages as to his influence over the club’s decision.
Shaqiri told The Guardian: “I had a lot of messages from my friends when it happened.
“There were a lot of good messages about the United game at first and then, when the news came out about Mourinho, I had messages saying: ‘That’s your fault!’ But this is football sometimes.
“I don’t think it was just because we won that game that United wanted to change their manager.
“There were other reasons but it means the game goes down in history. It will always be in my history too.”
Shaqiri is hoping to start against Wolves on Friday night, adding: “Every player wants to play, that’s pretty normal.
“Every player is unhappy when he’s on the bench, that’s pretty normal too. But it’s football, only 11 players can start and the coach has his game-plan for each game.”
