Jose Mourinho has claimed that fatigue is to blame for Manchester United's 1-1 draw at home to Swansea on Sunday, but the reality is that his side was lucky to come away with a point as the goal they scored should never have happened.

Marcus Rashford took a dive and and conned the referee who awarded a penalty that was converted by Wayne Rooney, but shockingly, in the BT Sport studio at half time, Michael Owen echoed Robbie Savage's belief that it was "just good forward play" rather than calling it what it is.

The attempt at describing it as Rashford defending himself did not go well, but thankfully when Jamie Carragher gave his verdict on MNF, there was no such bullshit to be found.

Carragher called Rashford's dive a dive, and described how he and Sané drew the contact themselves.

[Was it a dive?] Yes. Simple as that. I've got sympathy for the referees I think it's really, really difficult, you can look at them and criticise them maybe but it's really difficult. I think a lot of the challenges we're looking at this week are the same, look at Rashford's eyes. He sees the keeper coming, and all he's thinking is 'get there first, and he's gonna hit me'. The problem is, he doesn't hit him, so he then has to throw his own foot in. I think, after the game Paul Clement said he "decieved the referee"... He dived. And he won Man United a penalty.

That really is all there is to it.


Carragher also gave his views on Leroy Sané, who won a penalty under very similar circumstances against Middlesbrough, and Harry Kane, who he believed was a different case.

This is exactly the same, with Sané. He sees the defender coming 'I'm gonna try and get there first and throw my leg into him'. And it's again seeing people coming. Harry Kane's is different. I think it's similar in that, when he's on the way, I'm thinking 'I'm just gonna get a touch' and he does get taken down. Could Harry Kane stay on his feet if he had to? Possibly, yeah, and I think the kick out is to make sure he got a penalty, but I still think that's a penalty. Some people may criticise him for that, but I think it's a penalty.

Carragher then used the example of Coutinho at Crystal Palace, where the Liverpool man stayed on his feet in a very similar situation and was not awarded a penalty, for why he made the extra extension of his leg.

It's a good point from Carragher, and it's refreshing to see him have no problem with calling Rashford's dive a dive, unlike others who tense up at the idea of criticising the next great hope for English football.