Former Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes has hit out Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho for trying to influence match-officials while claiming that the Portuguese can never quite be as influential as Sir Alex Ferguson was during his time at Old Trafford.
According to Paul Scholes, Jose Mourinho tries too hard to influence the match-officials and hence ends up not being taken seriously during the games. Unlike Sir Alex Ferguson, who knew when to a pick his momenta , Paul Scholes believes that Mourinho is yet to master the art of influencing match officials.
“There were many games over my career for Manchester United when Sir Alex Ferguson would get out of his seat and come into the technical area to have his say if he believed that an intervention needed to be made, or a point expressed to a referee. People like to think it happened all the time but, believe me, in 19 years playing for him you recognised that he knew how to pick his moment.”
“Watching Chelsea against Liverpool on Tuesday night, my feeling was not so much that Jose Mourinho was looking for the opportune moments to appeal against a decision or make his presence felt. Rather, for most of that 90 minutes a and the 30 minutes of extra time that followed a Mourinho seemed to be under the impression that it was him who was refereeing the game.”
Speaking about Chelseaa s encounter against Liverpool, Scholes commented that Mourinho made a fool of himself by continuously speaking to the fourth official while claiming that had Sir Alex Ferguson been in Brendan Rodgersa place, he would have put an end to Mourinhoa s antics immediately.
“Had that semi-final been against a United team managed by Ferguson, you can be sure that my old boss would have been across the technical area. He would have spotted what was going on a mile off, the blatant attempts to influence every single decision of a young referee, and put a stop to it straightaway.”
“Brendan Rodgers decided to ignore the nonsense going on in the opposite dugout. At least the Liverpool manager looked like the more dignified of the two.”
Paul Scholes also belives that Mourinhoa s a anticsa have a negative impact on his team as match-officials fail to take him seriously due to his continous onslaught on the fourth official.
“The funny thing is, the more Mourinho does it, the more referees will be inclined to ignore him. If you spend an entire game jabbering away at an official you will very soon acquire a reputation as an annoyance best ignored. The whole process is counter-productive.”
With Chelsea set to host Manchester City on Saturday, it will be interesting to see if Jose Mourinho can indeed take a leaf out of Sir Alex Ferguson’s book and try and ‘pick his moments’ to influence the game in his favour.