Jose Mourinho has been asked by the FA to explain his controversial comments about Manchester City before Sunday’s derby.

The Manchester United boss made the comments ahead of Sunday's derby, which City won 2-1.

Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Mourinho warned referee Michael Oliver to look out for City’s “tactical fouls” when they are defending counter-attacks.

He also said: "If you ask me one thing that I don’t like a lot is that they lose their balance very easily. A little bit of wind and they fall”.

The FA have asked for Mourinho’s observations and he has until 6pm on Monday to respond.

Mourinho shakes hands with Guardiola (
Image:
REUTERS)
City and United face off (
Image:
Getty Images Europe)

Asked about City stars fouling opponents who break rapidly against them Mourinho said: “I know it is what they do. Yes, yes.

“I know it is a strategy that they have. They put lots of people in attacking areas. They attack with a lot of players.

“But when they lose the ball, they are often unbalanced in numbers, they have lots of people surrounding the ball area and they have a very strong – and this is a great quality – transition in the next few seconds after they lose the ball.

“Many times in that situation, they need what is called a tactical foul and then it is up to the referee to analyse and to make a decision about it. But I cannot speak about that.

“My answer always has to be, ‘the referee has to do his job’ but you know that I cannot speak about the referee.”

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Meanwhile, both United and City have until Friday evening to provide their observations on what happened in the tunnel after Sunday's clash.

The two sets of players clashed outside the away dressing room after Mourinho took exception to the City celebrations.

It has since emerged there are no CCTV cameras in the tunnel in which the 20-man brawl erupted

Had there been cameras positioned in the area where the fracas broke out, the FA could have requested United submit film as part of its investigation into what went on, but the lack of any footage is likely to make it harder to determine which side was to blame for the melee.