Mark Clattenburg has hailed Jose Mourinho and Jurgen Klopp - for not having a moan at referees.

The former Premier League referee, who quit the top-flight last season for a lucrative post in Saudi Arabia, believes that both the Manchester United and Liverpool managers would have had reasonable cases to do so in recent weeks.

Clattenburg claims there have been a number of glaring officiating errors and that it underlines the future ‘importance’ of video technology.

Despite those mistakes, he has saluted the likes of Mourinho and Klopp and praised their ‘shift’ in attitude.

Mark Clattenburg believes referees have made some mistakes this season (
Image:
REUTERS)
Clattenburg has praised Jurgen Klopp and Jose Mourinho for not blaming referees (
Image:
REUTERS)

Instead of pointing the finger at the man in the middle, both bosses, he says, opted to shift focus on their players - a trend Clattenburg hopes will continue.

“There have been a few bad decisions in the past couple of weeks,” said Clattenburg, writing in The Times .

“But what is interesting is that, in general, managers haven’t been blaming referees. It’s a real shift.

Clattenburg is now an analyst for BT Sport (
Image:
BT Sport/Twitter)
Clattenburg quit the Premier League last season for a lucrative role in Saudi Arabia (
Image:
Getty Images Europe)

“Both Jose Mourinho and Jurgen Klopp blamed their players for defeats last weekend when often the emphasis is placed on officials.

“Let’s hope the trend continues.”

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