Tuesday 28 November 2017 23:38, UK
Marco Silva believes Marcos Rojo should have been sent off in Man Utd's 4-2 win over Watford at Vicarage Road on Tuesday night.
Rojo was already on a booking when he brought down Roberto Pereyra in the box with just under 15 minutes to go, but referee Jon Moss did not dismiss the Argentine.
Troy Deeney stepped up to score from the spot, before Abdoulaye Doucoure brought Watford to within one goal of United at 3-2 with six minutes left, but Silva believes the visitors should have been down to 10 men before that point.
"We scored the first goal from a penalty and for me in that moment it was a second yellow card for Marcos Rojo, with 11 against 10 it would be really difficult for them," Silva said.
"We made it difficult for them because we scored the second goal. Imagine if it was 11 v 10 at that moment. We started to create more problems for them, but then one counter attack from them and we should do different in that moment.
"Tom (Cleverley) went to stop the counter attack, at that moment we should do a tactical foul to stop [Jesse] Lingard because the game would continue to be open until the end if they didn't score the fourth."
Watford started the game brighter at Vicarage Road, and impressed in stages in the second half, but United's quality in front of goal was ultimately telling.
Silva admits the result is hard for him to take, and says his players seemed nervous in parts throughout the game.
He said: "Hard result for us. We started very well, we controlled our opponent well, and in that moment the game is balanced.
"It was really hard for us [after going 3-0 down]. Nobody expected what happened in that moment but against this type of teams we knew before the match they are very strong on the counter attack.
"After the first goal I felt our players were a little bit nervous, the third goal is an example - we had two or three times to deal with the problem and we made easy mistakes. It's not easy the last 15 mins of the first half.
"It was different in the second half, I told my players it wasn't in our image to make lots of mistakes like we did after the first goal."
