Jose Mourinho has backed Marcos Rojo and insisted the Manchester United defender is a "clean" but "aggressive" player after the Argentine avoided a red card against Crystal Palace with another two-footed challenge.
Rojo was only cautioned by referee Craig Pawson after he lunged in at Palace winger Wilfried Zaha during the first half of United's clash with the Eagles at Selhurst Park on Wednesday, while the score was still goalless.
It was reminiscent of Rojo's similar wild two-footed tackle on Everton's Idrissa Gueye at Goodison Park earlier this month, which again saw the defender receive only a caution from referee Michael Oliver.
Palace manager Alan Pardew said the tackle looked "bad" and deserved a straight sending off. He said: "From the sidelines, it did look bad.
"He jumps two-footed on [Zaha], and we’ve been to all these meetings where [we’re told] that’s a red card."
But Mourinho defended his player, insisting Rojo is "very clean" as a footballer.
"He’s playing really well, phenomenal," the Portuguese said.
"He’s a clean player, aggressive. His nature, Argentinian, is emotional but very clean, and he’s playing probably the best football of his career.
"I didn’t comment on David Luiz’s tackle on Marouane Fellaini, or Danny Rose’s tackle on Henrikh Mkhitaryan. So I’m not going to comment on this one."
United secured victory in the midweek Premier League clash after Zlatan Ibrahimovic fired in Paul Pogba's through-ball in the 88th minute goal.
Pogba had opened the scoring for the visitors just before the break before James McArthur's goal in the second half seemed set to hand Palace a point.
But Ibrahimovic netted his ninth goal of the season to lift United into sixth place, six points off the top four.
