Jose Mourinho praised Barcelona star Ivan Rakitic for his performance but couldn’t resist an “Instagram” jibe during TV punditry for El Clasico.
Barcelona defeated Real Madrid 1-0 in the heavyweight league clash at Santiago Bernabeu last night.
Ivan Rakitic scored the sole goal in the game and performed brilliantly throughout the game as Barca registered their second victory over their arch-rivals within a week. Earlier, a brace from Luis Suarez secured Barca’s 3-0 victory at Santiago Bernabeu in the second leg of the Copa del Rey.
With the win last night, Barcelona leads in the overall record for the wins against Real Madrid for the first time in 87 years between the two sides.
Real are yet to beat Barcelona this season, having lost three of their four games against the arch-rivals. Barca defeated Real 5-1 in the first league El Clasico of the season at Camp Nou.
Jose Mourinho, after the game, praised Barca midfielder Ivan Rakitic for his excellent performance in the game.
“Before I leave, let me say something. I’ve wanted to say this for a long, long time: Ivan Rakitic is one of the most underrated players in the world,” Mourinho said, during his punditry-stint with beIN Sports.
“I just wanted to finish on that because normally we speak about the big names.”
However, he joked about Rakitic needing to “improve his Instagram,” which could be directed towards his experience in his last season at Manchester United.
“For me, Rakitic needs to improve his Instagram and his social media because in this moment this is very important and he is not very good on that, he is good on the pitch.
“He’s a fantastic player at every level. He does defensive work on the right hand side to compensate Messi, he runs miles.”
Jose Mourinho suffered a breakdown in relationship with midfielder Paul Pogba during his final year at Manchester United. In October, a video footage of the duo arguing during a training session went viral.
It was later revealed that Mourinho was annoyed because of an Instagram video posted by the French midfielder, where he could be seen laughing with his United teammates.
While the video wasn’t offensive, its timing angered the Portuguese manager. The video was posted after Manchester United lost to Championships’ side Derby County on penalties in the Carabao Cup tie.
Jose Mourinho also talked about his final season at Old Trafford and admitted that it is impossible to win trophies if the manager fails to have a good relationship with his players.
“If you tell me that in the past season that I had some problems, I don’t want to speak about [that] for obvious reasons,” he said.
“I will not deny to you that some factors had an influence in that the last period was not a good one. It’s impossible to win trophies without a good relationship with players.”
Mourinho further stated that he put himself in a position where the fans turned against him, but insisted that he fought till the end at Manchester United.
“What you need sometimes is to accelerate some process, what you need to be is to be a club man and sometimes to be a club man you need to forget yourself a little bit.
“I think I always did it, sometimes for the good of the immediate needs of the club and group.
“I put myself in situations that in the eyes of people from the outside are not the best position, but I don’t regret that at all because I always give my all for the club.”
Mourinho has earlier stated that he’s on a break and may return to management at the beginning of the next season.
