His comments follow a joke made by Solskjaer on Saturday.
Jose Mourinho is rarely one to let things lie when he has the opportunity to get a little dig in, and he did just that on Sunday afternoon, returning a dig at Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who himself had taken the piss out of the Spurs boss over the weekend.
“I don’t think he will concern himself with the size of the goal but the size of the penalty box… he will not play with an 18 yard box, only 22 yards,” said Mourinho in his pre-match interview with Sky Sports, referring to United’s habit of winning penalties quite regularly.
Jose Mourinho has aimed his own dig at Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. A reminder it is United vs Tottenham next weekend 👀 #mufc #thfc pic.twitter.com/RYd6AYWOzH
— Rich Fay (@RichFay) September 27, 2020
On Saturday, after his Manchester United side had gained a late and fortuitous victory over Brighton and Hove Albion, Solskjaer joked: “First of all we have to be thankful José [Mourinho] isn’t here to measure the goalposts, otherwise we’d have been in trouble.”
Drama is following Solskjaer everywhere 😂
The Man Utd boss got a fright during his chat with @TheDesKelly after Brighton gave his team a fight on the pitch.
Some pluses, but work to be done for Man Utd. pic.twitter.com/Sul9cspWQN
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) September 26, 2020
As we have seen from the All Or Nothing documentary, Mourinho is always on high alert for slights, real or perceived, and rarely misses an opportunity to strike back.
Solskjaer’s comments were in reference to a moment earlier in the week, after Spurs had beaten Macedonian side Shkendija, when Mourinho drew attention to the fact that the goals on the pitch were five centimetres lower than regulation measurements.
Mourinho said: “The goalkeepers they live hours and hours in the goal so they know when the goals are not the right dimensions. I felt immediately something was wrong and we got the UEFA delegate to confirm and it was 5cm too small. We asked for goals to be replaced for goals of the right dimensions.”
As this slowly simmers along, it is worth remembering that Mourinho and Solskjaer’s sides face off next weekend at Old Trafford.
