Manchester United 0 Chelsea 0 - Five talking points

3. Mourinho’s fancy ‘striker-less’ setup reflects lack of confidence in the forward line

It was a night decorated with all the talk about how much Mourinho needs a marquee forward and it ended on a rather similar note. The Portuguese, who rather opted for a striker-less setup led by Andre Schurrle in a ‘false 9’ role in the search of ‘mobility’, was left with little attacking prowess to show in the opening phase of the game.

In fact, at the end of first half, with United defence barely moving for their deep defensive lines, made Schurrle look nothing more than a clueless midfielder slotted in as a centre forward. All and all, the game where Mourinho said to have been left to experiment to find a result looked more of a ‘Plan B’, largely as a cover-up for his misfiring bunch of strikers.

Clearly, after playing Ba, Torres and Lukaku for at least more than 40 minutes in the first two games, Mourinho has been left to ponder a lot more than what he started the game with.

Now, with Rooney pursuit finding no end results, it may not be surprising if Jose snaps up someone like Samuel Eto’o from the market to fill up the void. As for the rest of the attacking options in the Blue outfit, things don’t look promising at all, with the manager looking to sacrifice his favourite setup to hide their collective mediocrity.