• Belgian striker says managers and players must find better ways of communication • ‘We need to have a closer relationship’ with social media, says forward
The Belgian footballer Romelu Lukaku has said that football managers and players must find better ways of communicating on social media after a furious video review by the referee of him diving.
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Having a chat with his club manager, José Mourinho, Lukaku, who scored twice to give Manchester United a 4-1 win at Cardiff on Sunday, said he was surprised that the the incident was subject to such a discussion.
“I have a personal issue with diving,” he said. “I don’t feel myself guilty. It’s a challenge, and it’s aggressive.
“It’s not diving; I can tell you this. It is in our own code and that is how we have to take it, that’s it.”
Lukaku gave Manchester United a 29th-minute lead but the central defender José Fonte equalised from the penalty spot before Henrikh Mkhitaryan restored the visitors’ lead with the first of his two goals.
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“As a manager, I have no problems with sharing things,” Mourinho said. “You give a yellow card for diving, and I don’t want that. We always speak in the tunnel and we always talk.”
The manager also said he had no problem with United fans using racist abuse at Cardiff’s capital city stadium.
“They are happy,” he said. “I said before the game: ‘You need to enjoy the football, you need to be together with the team, you need to be happy.’ And that’s what I think they are.”