West Ham boss Slaven Bilic has suggested that Jose Mourinho put himself in more serious trouble by kicking a water bottle too cleanly in his touchline tantrum last Sunday.

The Manchester United manager has been charged with improper conduct by the Football Association after he was sent to the stands by referee Jon Moss during the 1-1 Premier League draw with the Hammers at Old Trafford.

Mourinho became incensed when Paul Pogba was booked for diving and kicked a bottle in frustration before Moss ordered him to leave the technical area.

Bilic offered some sympathy towards his counterpart and felt that his clean connection made the offence unfortunately clear.

"It was a great volley to be fair. He should have miskicked it - he hit it too well!" Bilic said ahead of the teams' EFL Cup quarter-final clash on Wednesday.

"I have sympathy with him because of the situation with Pogba, it was a great decision from the referee but from our point of view it did not look like a dive.

"Many times I have seen those bottles in front of me and many times I have gone to smash them and stopped in the last second."

It is the second time Mourinho has been sent off this season and could land the 53-year-old with a stadium ban, as well as a significant fine.

But Bilic believes the behaviour of managers in England is much more refined than in a number of other European nations.

"I have been sent to the stands a couple of times, including once when I was at Besiktas in a game against Arsenal in the last minute of the [Champions League] play-off game - I gesticulated too much and the referee was Serbian so he understood me," said Bilic.

"In Europe, in most stadiums the benches are far away from each other so we don't see each other. Here [in England] you are right next to each other and it is a dangerous situation because your state of mind is not normal. You are not sitting at home having lunch with your family - your adrenaline is going and you are in the red zone.

"What I find really great in England is that I have never seen a fight between the managers. [Arsene] Wenger and Mourinho, the one they always show, is one in 15 years or so, so we are doing well."