Mourinho not blaming referee for controversial draw

Jose Mourinho says referee Kevin Friend was not the cause of Manchester United’s controversial 1-1 Premier League draw with 10-man Bournemouth.

Saturday’s match at Old Trafford saw Andrew Surman sent off for the visitors after Josh King’s penalty had cancelled out Marcos Rojo’s opener.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic – who went on to miss a late penalty – and Tyrone Mings were both fortunate to escape red cards themselves at the end of a frantic first half.

United forward Ibrahimovic aimed an elbow the Bournemouth defender in retaliation for what appeared to be a stamp on his head from the Bournemouth defender prior to Surman’s dismissal for shoving the ex-Sweden captain.

Jose Mourinho: “We lost two points and a good opportunity to close the gap.” #MUFC #MUNBOU pic.twitter.com/uVlCDRpVej

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) March 4, 2017

“The two important decisions Kevin had were right – the two penalties are two penalties no doubts about it,” Mourinho said to Sky Sports.

“The referee made his decisions – I always defend that the referee is the one that has the decisions.

“For me the referee was good and if we didn’t win it was because it was Artur Boruc made an amazing performance, it was because were not lucky, it was because we were not good enough to materialise goals for the dominance that we had.”

Mourinho insisted a retrospective ban for Mings would not matter to him after United dropped costly points and missed the chance to gain ground on their top-four rivals.

The United manager added: “I’m a football man. I’m in football for many, many years. I don’t like to speak after matches about what happened during matches. 

“The referee was there. If you ask me if I am going to be happy if Tyrone Mings gets a three-, four- or five-match ban, I really don’t care about it. 

“He [Mings] knows what he did better than anyone else. He knows better than the ref what his intention was or about the emotion of the moment.

“I don’t want to speak about it, it is not important for me. The result is important for me. Once more we deserved to win by far but we didn’t. We lost a good opportunity to close the gap.”