It’s no secret that his first season at Manchester United hasn’t gone quite as well as Jose Mourinho was probably hoping. Sure, they’re still in sixth place with an outside chance of gaining a top four spot, but it’s going to take a Herculean effort over the last few games to pull it off.
You could argue that the club are in a transitional period and that Mourinho just needs time to get things right, but a fair argument can also be made that certain players have let ‘The Special One’ down. Here are five contenders.
#1 Luke Shaw
The England left-back was signed by United during the 2014 World Cup after impressing at Southampton and was expected to go on to great things at Old Trafford. He appeared to be hitting top form in late 2015 but then broke his leg in a nasty incident.
Since he’s returned to action things have changed – it’s Mourinho at United now, not Louis van Gaal, and the young defender has come under plenty of fire from his new boss – being accused of coming into the season overweight and out of shape, and more recently the Portuguese has also questioned his commitment and attitude.
Whether Shaw deserves such criticism is a bit of a question mark but there’s no smoke without fire, and the fact is that he’s barely featured for United this season. In his absence, Mourinho has tried the likes of Ashley Young and Daley Blind in his position to mixed results.
Shaw clearly has an abundance of talent and could play a key role for United, but if his attitude this season has been as bad as Mourinho has suggested then it can definitely be argued that he’s let his boss down.
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#2 Paul Pogba
Pogba’s signing in the summer was greeted with a tremendous amount of hype, mainly because of his record-breaking £89m fee. But has he really lived up to the cost? I’d have to say no.
While he’s shown flashes of his great talent – most notably during the Christmas period that saw United win six league games in a row – he’s just not lit up the pitch the way you’d expect a player who cost that much money to do. When you consider he was more expensive than Cristiano Ronaldo for instance, you can see the problem.
When United played Chelsea in the FA Cup quarter-final recently, for instance, Pogba appeared to have gone missing entirely. He was thoroughly outclassed in the centre of midfield by Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante – a man who cost around a third of the money than his compatriot did.
While Pogba can still become a United legend, he needs to play much better than he has done thus far this season and maybe put less focus on pushing his own brand. The man who was supposed to be Mourinho’s ultimate signing has been more of a letdown thus far and it’s sad in a way.
Also Read: Reports: Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho unhappy with Paul Pogba over Twitter emoji
#3 Wayne Rooney
This one is perhaps less of his own doing as it’s quite clear his best days are behind him now, but Rooney has continued to spiral downwards this season, barely figuring as a starting player and only scoring 5 goals in his truncated 31 appearances.
As a Rooney fan, while it was somewhat of a relief that Mourinho didn’t dispose of the faded star as soon as he arrived – clearly he’d learned from his attempts to do the same to Iker Casillas at Real Madrid – there’s no denying that he hasn’t really paid back the faith that Mourinho put in him by keeping him as club captain.
Sure, he’s broken a couple of records this season – he’s now United’s all-time highest goalscorer as well as their highest ever scorer in Europe – but his true powers seem to have all but faded away now as he slowly seems to be transitioning into a player on the periphery.
Will he move to China in the summer? Hopefully not – he still has something to offer to a lower Premier League team – but it seems inconceivable that Mourinho would keep him after this season’s performances.
#4 Marcus Rashford
Marcus Rashford was arguably the biggest success story of Louis van Gaal’s brief time at United. He burst onto the scene during last season to score 8 goals in 18 appearances, and his performances even earned him a spot in England’s Euro 2016 squad.
This season though hasn’t quite been the follow-up we were expecting. Mourinho is well-known for perhaps not having the patience with young players that some of his contemporaries do, but he’s given Rashford a fair shake this season – he’s started thirteen league games and has appeared as a substitute in a further eleven.
Unfortunately, as of Rashford’s last appearance – United’s 1-1 draw with Everton – the youngster has gone twenty league games without a goal. While some of that can be put down to the fact that Mourinho has deployed him on the left wing at times, it still isn’t the return expected from someone who showed so much potential last season.
Rashford’s got plenty of time to develop and improve and he clearly has the talent to do so. But if he continues to go through dry spells like the one he’s had recently, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Mourinho labels him a letdown and has him ushered out of Old Trafford.
#5 Anthony Martial
Like Pogba in a way, Martial arrived at United last season with a large price tag (£36m) and a lot of hype. For the most part he lived up to it too, scoring a solid 17 goals and pulling off some spectacular moments of skill along the way.
This season though – his first under Mourinho – has been a lot different. He’s only made 17 appearances in the Premier League thus far – he made 31 last season – and he’s come under a lot of fire. Recently he – along with Marcus Rashford – was accused by Jamie Carragher of “embarrassing” United in the absence of the suspended Zlatan Ibrahimovic due to his lack of goals and consistency.
Prior to that he came under criticism from Mourinho himself, as the Portuguese may have been referring to Martial when he accused some United players of being “mentally weak” and of letting down their teammates. And recent performances won’t have done much to change Mourinho’s mind – Martial hasn’t scored since February 11th.
With his hefty transfer fee hanging over him it’s imperative that Martial doesn’t let Mourinho down next season. Or his time at Old Trafford could be shorter than he anticipated.
Has anyone else let Mourinho down this season?
