Jose Mourinho vents his frustration as he demands to be shown same treatment as rival managers

Having seen Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool all drop points on Tuesday night, Mourinho realised that another opportunity to close the gap had been squandered

'The rules for me are different,' he said. 'They are different in everything' (Getty)

Frustrated beyond measure by more dropped points against the kind of team Manchester United once overcame without thinking, Jose Mourinho demanded that he receive the same treatment as other managers.

After a goalless draw against Hull - who had not won at Old Trafford since 1952 - United find themselves still entrenched in sixth place, four points behind Manchester City in fifth. Having seen Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool all drop points on Tuesday night, Mourinho realised that another opportunity to close the gap had been squandered.

Afterwards, the Manchester United manager was asked whether he thought the Hull striker, Oumar Niasse, who had already been booked, should have been sent off for a rash tackle on Daley Blind. To Mourinho, this injustice ranked alongside the failure to award a handball against Erik Pieters in last month’s 1-1 draw at Stoke and the failure to award a penalty for Claudio Bravo’s foul on Wayne Rooney in the Manchester derby.

“I don’t know why you ask me these kind of questions,” Mourinho said. “If I were in your place, I wouldn’t ask the manager, I would just write what was my opinion. Just write what is happening in almost every game with us.

“I don’t want to speak more about refereeing decisions because, I repeat, if I were in your place. . . maybe your industry is going in another direction, I don’t know but for me journalism is to tell the truth.

“Tell the truth. You simply have to tell the truth and, if you go to game after game with Manchester United and you see what happened here with Manchester City, what happened here with Burnley, what happened here with West Ham, what happened at Stoke, what happened almost everywhere, you do your job and you do a public service.

“Tell the truth, it is as simple as that. If telling the truth is also saying that Manchester United in the first half didn’t play well, then so be it. We should play better in the first half, so tell the truth.”

Mourinho then compared his treatment with that of Jurgen Klopp. After Tuesday night’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea, the Liverpool manager revealed that the fourth official, Neil Swarbrick, had told him that “he liked his passion”. As Mourinho lost his temper during the stalemate, he said the fourth official had threatened to send him off.

Mourinho cut a dejected and frustrated figure on the sideline (Getty)

“The rules for me are different,” he said. “They are different in everything. I have to watch my team play in a hotel, I was forbidden to go to the stadium, my assistant had a six-match stadium ban and he didn’t touch anyone (during Chelsea’s game against Sunderland in 2014). Yesterday, one fourth official said to a manager (Klopp) “I enjoy your passion". Today I was told to sit down or they would send me to the stands.

“Everything is different for me so don’t ask me difficult questions. I just want to say 0-0 is a great point for Hull. Congratulations. Bad point for us.”

Interviewed by the BBC, Mourinho ended the interview with the phrase: “If you do not know football, you shouldn’t have a microphone in your hand.”​