West Ham United boss Slaven Bilic has shown his funny side by giving a hilarious response to Jose Mourinho’s bottle-kicking incident during the 1-1 draw against Manchester United on Sunday in the Premier League.
Around the 27th-minute mark Paul Pogba dived when tackled by Mark Noble and got himself booked for simulation. The incident angered the United boss who kicked a bottle in front of his dugout for which he was sent to the stands by referee Jonathan Moss.
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Bilic, however, saw funny side of it and said that the Portuguese himself is to be blamed for the trouble as he actually hit it too well despite being a manager. Commenting on the incident and the consequences he said, “The problem is that he hit that bottle like - well it was a great volley, to be fair. He should have miskicked it! He hit it too good.”
The West Ham manager also recalled an incident where he himself got sent to the stands against Arsenal: “I was sent off once in a game against Arsenal when I managed Besiktas, in the last minute of the game.”
“I gesticulated too much, but the referee was Serbian so he understood me! I apologised after the game,” said Bilic.
Although the decision of a yellow card favoured the Hammers, Bilic, being a close witness to the incident was however not too critical of Paul Pogba and feels that it didn’t look like a dive from the Frenchman.
“Why I have sympathy with him is that situation with Pogba, it really looked from our angle - and he was close to me - that it didn't look like a dive,” said Bilic.
“It was obvious, and it was a great decision from the referee. But from our point, it did not look like a dive.”
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Mark Noble himself confessed that he would have crashed into Paul Pogba had the French midfielder not dived. However, referee Moss read the act as a pure case of simulation and showed no mercy in booking the midfielder.
The booking was the fifth of the season for the record signing and the United man missed Wednesday’s EFL cup tie against the Hammers at Old Trafford. United won 4-1 against West Ham in the EFL Cup game with a brace from Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Anthony Martial.
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