Marco Silva believes Marcos Rojo should have been sent off and labels Jose Mourinho comments as 'harsh'

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Marco Silva believes Marcos Rojo should have received a second booking for the penalty that made it 3-1 with 13 minutes of Watford’s 4-2 defeat to Manchester United left, and felt that Jose Mourinho’s comments that it could have been 6-0 were “harsh”.

The younger Portuguese did admit that his men suffered from an odd 'nervousness' after going 2-0 behind to United in the first half to then go 3-0 down before the break, but praised their “character” in coming back to make it 3-2 so close to the end.

A remarkable recovery had looked on the cards after Rojo wildly took down substitute Roberto Pereyra in the 76th minute, but did not receive a second booking.

“When we scored the first goal we were already better, we scored the penalty and at that moment it looked like a second yellow card for Marcus Rojo,” Silva said. “If it’s 11 against 10 it would be very difficult for them. It was difficult anyway because we scored the second, but if it’s 11 against 10 it would be even better.”

When it was put to Silva that Mourinho had said United “had chances for four, five and six”, he responded: “I think it seems harsh [Jose’s comments] for everyone. It’s Jose’s opinion. I didn’t see the same game.

"It was a hard result. I believe we started very well, the first 20 minutes. We controlled our opponent well, and played in the final third. At that point, it is finely balanced and we had two or three dangerous crosses.

"We controlled things well, but the first time they went in our box the details started to change things. They went in our box three times and scored three times. No one expected these things to happen, but we knew before the game Manchester United are strong on the counterattack.

"We have to be sure and balanced and solve any problems, and after the first goal our players got a bit nervous. That’s not normal for us. The third goal is a good example; we could have cleared it two or three times and made simple mistakes. With 30-35 minutes on the clock, it’s not easy then before half-time because of the scoreline. Richarlison could have scored just before half-time, I told the players it’s not our style, there were a lot of mistakes after the first goal. We had to do everything different, and at 3-0 we needed to go out, play our game and forget the scoreline.”

When asked why they got nervous, Silva said: “It’s not normal, maybe they felt the pressure. It’s not normal for this team, we’ll talk and maybe it was playing against a big team some of our players are still young and the first time they have played Manchester United. We’ll analyse it.”

He did, however, praise Watford's resilience to come back and make it so close having been 3-0 down at half-time.

“It’s our character as a team. We had 45 minutes to play, I talked to the players at half-time and said we had to go and play like it’s 0-0. Forget the result, and what has happened, because the individual details had made a difference. If you look for the game, everything was too balanced for the result. We had to go and play our game, and see the result in the end.

“Manchester United scored three goals because we gave them those moments. We wanted to play our game, to respect our opponent, to play on the counter attack and we tried to do that and we did our best in all the match. We avoided more mistakes in the second half and were a lot better.”