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Jose Mourinho is undergoing a problematic phase at Manchester United. Since his appointment in 2016, Mourinho has won some inconsequential trophies, but it is not enough at a club like United.
His United side did make it to the final of the FA Cup in 2018, but lost in the final. United also finished 19 points behind Manchester City in the EPL last season. Moreover, in the ongoing season too, United find themselves in the 8th position in the league table with only 20 points from 12 matches.
Anthony Martial and Luke Shaw have probably been the two best performers for United this season, but none of them were signed by Mourinho. They were there at the club before his arrival and both of them have had a strained relationship with him. To make matters worse, some of the signings made by Mourinho have gone kaput and failed to make any sustained contribution to United’s cause.
We would now look at 3 such recruitments made by Mourinho, who have failed to deliver.
#1 Henrikh Mkhitaryan
Mkhitaryan was signed from Borussia Dortmund at a price of almost 30 million Pounds. However, his stint at United hardly justified the price tag. Mkhatariyan was unsure of his position most of the times as Mourinho struggled to finalize a strategy for his club.
He was tried both as an attacking midfielder and a winger, but could not impress with his performances. His return of 13 goals in 63 matches was hardly satisfactory.
He had played in 140 matches for Dortmund and scored 41 goals for them. Mkhitaryan was with Dortmund for three seasons and still managed to play 140 matches, whereas he could feature in only 63 matches for Uited in two seasons. This goes on to show that he could not become a regular starter for them and was not used at all in a lot of matches.
Mkhitaryan was sold to Arsenal in 2018 and he has managed to get a regular place in their starting line-up now. Arsenal are performing quite decently under Unai Emery and Mkhitaryan might actually go on to have a successful career in England.
#2 Eric Bailly
Bailly was the first player signed by Mourinho at United. The Ivory Coast center-back was signed from Villarreal with a lot of expectations and featured in 38 matches for United in the first season. However, since then, he has only played in 25 matches for them in one and a half seasons and is going to leave the club in January.
Bailly is a young centre-back and an able tackler and marker. Moreover, he is strong in the air too and should have been the first choice centre-back for United. However, veteran Chris Smalling and Victor Lindelof have been playing as center-backs for United and Bailly has made only seven appearances for them in the ongoing season.
Mourinho should have helped him develop into a better defender and used him in the central defence for 7-8 years at least. Instead, he would move into another club after two and a half seasons with the club, a considerable part of which was spent warming the bench.
#3 Alexis Sanchez
The Chilean was already an established player when he made the move to United from Arsenal. He had scored 80 goals in 166 matches for the Gunners in four seasons and was one of the better performing attacking players in the league.
Prior to that too, Sanchez had averaged 15 goals a season for FC Barcelona in his three seasons with them. However, since making a move to United, Sanchez has featured in 29 matches and scored only 4 goals.
Mere stats do not tell the whole story here actually. The fact that Sanchez almost never starts for United and actually plays second fiddle to youngsters like Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingaard is even more disheartening. Mourinho actually played Lingaard in the right-wing against City, when it was obvious that the English youngster was struggling in that position. Sanchez was introduced very late into the match and could do little.
This is no way to treat a footballer, who has been among the best in the world in his position and played in 577 matches in his club career. To make matters worse, Sanchez might actually leave United in January and should that happen, it would underline yet another failure in man-management for Mourinho at United.
