Jose Mourinho should learn from Alex Ferguson about influencing referees: Paul Scholes

Scholes talks about the differences between Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho

Former Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes wrote an article for The Independent, where he spoke about the difference in ability of Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho to influence the decisions made by the match officials. Scholes said Ferguson had the ability of putting pressure on the referees to get the best decision from them, whereas the Portuguese’s rants and criticism seems to be getting him results that do not favour his side.

“As the most successful manager in the Premier League and its biggest name now that Sir Alex Ferguson has gone, it should be no great surprise to see Jose Mourinho doing his very best to influence the decision-makers in the game, from referees to the Football Association,” Scholes said in his column for the newspaper. “The problem for the Chelsea manager is that I just don't think it is working for him.

“It just seems to me there is an unwillingness among referees to be influenced by him. I am not saying they are making the wrong decisions on purpose, just that there is a resistance to being told what to do.”

Chelsea who have had a lot of decisions go against them this season, has two major occasions which has riled up Jose Mourinho, both these instances involve the banning of players. The first being the ban on Diego Costa’s ankle stepping incident against Liverpool, and the other being Nemanja Matic’s sending off in the Burnley game where he reacted to a horrendous tackle by Ashley Barnes.

“The referees wanted to please Sir Alex Ferguson”

Scholes went on to describe the method Alex Ferguson used to help his side, “There is no doubt that my former manager Sir Alex exerted an influence over some referees. He was the master of dropping a comment into his Friday press conference – for instance, how long it had been since we had been given a penalty, or the treatment meted out to a player like Cristiano Ronaldo. It was always calculated and delivered calmly.

“How would I describe the impression I got from some referees when it came to Sir Alex? I think some of them wanted to please him. I don't mean that they did us favours. It was more that they were very keen not to make mistakes in our games. That when they came to Old Trafford they wanted to be on top of their game and get everything right.

“It goes without saying that no one at United ever expected any help. We understood that decisions can go against you. We believed we were the better team and, therefore, if the referee got his decisions right, then we would win the vast majority of our games.”