Birmingham City boss John Eustace explains why he is ‘going to speak’ to Man Utd’s Hannibal Mejbri
John Eustace #JohnEustace
John Eustace says he will speak to Hannibal Mejbri about avoiding the attention of referees after the Manchester United youngster sailed close to the disciplinary wind in tonight’s victory over Queen’s Park Rangers.
The Birmingham City midfielder was booked early in the first half and went on to put in a combative display at the heart of Blues’ team, having a hand in both of their goals in a 2-0 win.
However, he would go on to commit three more fouls, the final one of which came early in the second half when he scythed down Ethan Laird but luckily escaped a second yellow card.
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Seconds later the Blues head coach decided to substitute him and he left the pitch to a standing ovation. Eustace admitted afterwards he was mindful of the risk of a red card.
“I was contemplating bringing him off at half time if I am going to be honest. I spoke to him spoke to the staff, he assured me he’d be OK. I think it lasted about four minutes.
“It’s something we have got to watch but he plays on the edge, that’s why he’s so good, a top player. I am certainly not going to stop him doing what he does but he has to realise the importance fo managing the games at times
“He is a 19-year-old footballer, he is learning his trade and we are going to speak to him about it for sure. There were lots of cynical fouls going on in the first half from both teams, Hanni got booked early on, I get that.
“He didn’t get sent off so it makes no difference to me, we brought him off because he was running the risk and that’s it. He might have got sent off on another day and when he made that tackle I thought ‘I have got to get him off’.”
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