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‘He knows what he did’ – Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho responds to Tyrone Mings’ stamp on Zlatan Ibrahimovic

‘He knows what he did’ – Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho responds to Tyrone Mings’ stamp on Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has said only Tyrone Mings knows if his stamp on Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the 1-1 draw with Bournemouth was intentional or not.

The Premier League sides played out an incident-filled draw at Old Trafford on Saturday afternoon, where two unsavoury incidents between Ibrahimovic and Mings stole the headlines.

Read more: 'Underperforming and overrated!' Fans react to Paul Pogba's performance v Bournemouth

Both men were lucky to escape red cards after Mings first stamped on the United striker’s head when he lay on the floor, with Ibrahimovic later seeming to retaliate with an elbow to the defender’s face in an aerial challenge.

Ibrahimovic and Mings both denied intent, with the Red Devils star insisting Mings ‘jumped into my elbow’ and the Bournemouth man pleading that ‘off the ball stuff like that isn't in my game’.

However, following the game  Mourinho refuse to speak at length about the incident, insisting that, to him, any retrospective ban for the defender would be inconsequential.

"I'm a football man, I'm in football for many, many years, I don't like to speak after matches what happened during matches," Mourinho said.

"What happened during matches, happened during matches and the referee was there. If you ask me that I am happy if Tyrone Mings gets three or four or five matches ban, I really don't care about it. He knows what he did, he knows better than anyone what he did. He knows better than the referee the intention or the emotion of the moment.”

"I don't want to speak about it, it's not important for me.”

Mourinho was far more interested in talking about how his side failed to win a game which would have seen them climb into the top four.

United has 20 efforts on goal but just couldn’t find a way past man-of-the-match Artur Boruc on the second-half, with the goalkeeper saving an Ibrahimovic penalty.

Referee Kevin Friend was the centre of attention throughout the game following a number of questionable decisions - namely failing to spot the two incidents between Ibrahimovic and Mings.

But Mourinho insisted Boruc’s stubborn display was to reason for the draw, not the referee.

“Once more we deserved to win by far but we didn't and we lost two points and we lost a good opportunity to close the gap and jump a little bit," added the United boss.

"The referee made his decisions, I always defend that the referee is the one that has the decisions.

"Two important decisions Kevin [Friend] had it right, the two penalties are two penalties, no doubt about it so for me the referee was good and if we didn't win it was because Boruc made an amazing performance."

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