‘He’s Clean But Aggressive’ – Jose Mourinho Defends Marcos Rojo After Reckless Two-Footed Tackle On Wilfried Zaha

Chris Wright

15th, December 2016

3 Comments

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Jose Mourinho has spoken in defence of Marcos Rojo after the Manchester United man flew into yet another dangerous challenge during his side’s 2-1 win over Crystal Palace last night.

Rojo went lunging in on Wilfried Zaha with both feet only to be shown a yellow card by referee Craig Pawson…

The ‘tackle’ was only slightly less reckless than the horrible double-footed stamp Rojo put in on Idrissa Gueye when United played Everton 10 days ago.

Again, this was only deemed worthy of a booking…

Still, Mourinho maintains that his centre-back is essentially a “clean” player who merely succumbs to his “aggressive” Argentinian nature from time to time.

Speaking after the Palace match, the United manager told the press:

He’s playing really well, phenomenal. He’s a clean player, aggressive. His nature, Argentinian, is emotional but very clean, and he’s playing probably the best football of his career.

I didn’t comment on David Luiz’s tackle on Marouane Fellaini, or Danny Rose’s tackle on Henrikh Mkhitaryan. So I’m not going to comment on this one.

Rojo’s a liability is what he is. Nobody has ever been coached to tackle like that.

The two-footed tackle, especially of the flying variety, is a lunge rooted in cowardice – a spineless way to ensure you don’t get hurt in any given 50-50 situation.

He’s just incredibly lucky that both Zaha and Gueye were able to walk away.