José Mourinho criticises Old Trafford crowd for giving Scott McTominay stick

José Mourinho was critical of the Manchester United crowd after watching his team beat Liverpool 2-1 and questioned whether some supporters were being unfair on Scott McTominay by taking exception to a moment in the second half when the inexperienced midfielder played a backward pass rather than choosing to attack.

Mourinho’s decision to substitute Marcus Rashford, the scorer of both United goals, was booed by some fans later in the match but the manager said he was more aggrieved by what he perceived to be a negative response to one of McTominay’s passes.

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“The fans they can do what they want,” Mourinho said. “I am not upset at all with that reaction [about Rashford]. But I am upset with the reaction they had with Scott McTominay. A kid of 20 years old was making all the right decisions and they wanted him to make the wrong decisions. When he decides to break the intensity of the game, it was a wonderful solution and the fans reacted against the kid. That was the bad one. To react against me, that was not the problem.”

Rashford was making his first Premier League start since Boxing Day and Mourinho revealed that he had deliberately targeted the right-hand side of Liverpool’s defence.

“My plan was to give [Trent] Alexander-Arnold some problems. Alexander-Arnold is very fast – but I think Marcus is a little bit faster. I wanted to give him something to think about.”

Rashford was booked for a mistimed tackle on Dejan Lovren in the first half and Mourinho also seemed unimpressed that Gary Neville, in his television role, had criticised the challenge.

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“At half-time, someone told me Gary Neville was asking Marcus Rashford to get a red card so I was scared the referee was watching. Where Liverpool brought a lot of players to the central area of the pitch, Marcus Rashford was defending the corridor against Alexander-Arnold and, with the pressure of Gary, I made the decision to play a player [the substitute Marouane Fellaini] who could make a yellow.”