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The pressure seems to be growing on Jose Mourinho at Manchester United. They have lost their last two Premier League games, and the so-called ‘Special One’ seems to be feeling the pressure at Old Trafford.
After losing 3-2 to Brighton last week, and putting in one of the worst performances we have seen from United for a long time, the Red Devils were expected to bounce back against Tottenham on Monday night. They weren’t too bad in the first half, but collapsed after the break, eventually losing 3-0.
This is Mourinho’s third season at the club, and this is significant with the Portuguese manager, as in his management career to date, the third season has usually been pretty disastrous. Most recently at Chelsea, where he was sacked before Christmas, just seven months after winning the Premier League title.
His first season at United was a relative success. He won both the EFL Cup and Europa League, which guaranteed qualification for the Champions League, despite finishing sixth in the league. His second season was less than impressive. His side finished second, but well short of Manchester City, while they were dumped out of the Champions League by Sevilla at the round of 16.
Quite frankly, his players haven’t done enough during his time in charge of United. Obviously, Mourinho has made a number of mistakes in his time in charge, but his players have let him down an awful lot.
Here are five men who haven’t done well enough for Mourinho in his time in charge at Manchester United.
#1 Phil Jones
if there is one area where Mourinho has chopped and changed in his time in charge at Old Trafford, it has been at centre back. He has never had a settled centre-back pairing, and at times, he has even gone with three at the back. In this time, not one centre-back has really convinced enough to be considered first choice, least of all Jones, who despite all the chances he has had to impress, has never done the business under Mourinho.
Jones is currently 26, so should really be heading towards his peak, but instead, he still looks all over the place in the United defence. Positionally, he is regularly caught out, and he is so often rash in a challenge. Every time he is on the field, he looks like he is a disaster waiting to happen, and this was shown in the FA Cup final when he scythed down Eden Hazard in the area to give them the penalty, that proved decisive in the end.
#2 Paul Pogba
There may be no greater mystery in football at the moment than that of Paul Pogba. The Frenchman was brilliant at Juventus and lit up Europe with some of his performances. He formed an excellent relationship with the likes of Andrea Pirlo and Claudio Marchisio in the centre of the park, in a side that won four straight Serie A titles. This form meant United bought him back to Old Trafford, for a then world record fee of £89 million.
However, things haven’t worked out since his return to Manchester, and he has been distinctly average at times. He was expected to dominate games in the centre of the park, but this has only happened on a couple of occasions, and when the going has got tough, he has regularly gone missing, and his impact on the game has been non-existent. He is now entering his third season in the Premier League, and we still don’t know what his main strengths are. He hasn’t shown himself as a quality attacking midfielder, box-to-box midfielder, or even as a playmaker. He has been a massive disappointment.
#3 Anthony Martial
Martial has made no secret in recent months of his desire to leave United, mainly because of his treatment at the hands of Mourinho. But in reality, has he been deserving of this treatment? Everyone knows that Mourinho is a demanding manager, but so is Pep Guardiola, and his players have all stepped up to the plate for him. Why hasn’t Martial done this at Manchester United?
We know that his best work comes in the final third, and in form he is one of the top young players in the Premier League, but his attitude is certainly in question here. There is a reason no concrete bids came in for him over the summer, and that is because, at times, he simply doesn’t look like he wants it enough. He doesn’t track back in the way Mourinho would want, and in the second half of last season, in particular, he was woeful going forward and was a shadow of the player who joined the club from Monaco in 2015.
#4 Alexis Sanchez
No one has been a bigger disappointment at Old Trafford in Mourinho’s time at the helm than Alexis Sanchez. He may have only been at United for six months, but some of his performances have been pathetic. Many saw it as a coup when United beat Manchester City to the signing of Sanchez, managing to bring him to Old Trafford in exchange for Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who joined Arsenal. In reality, it has been a blessing in disguise for City.
He was expected to be the man to bring United back on terms with City in terms of quality, but it has been a totally different story. Sanchez looks like he left his footballing talent in London when he left in January, and he has done nothing to improve United’s frontline. Given the astronomical wages that he is reportedly being paid, he should be consistently putting in top performances, but he isn’t even doing enough to deserve a spot in the starting XI.
#5 Marcus Rashford
It may sound harsh given that Rashford is still only 20 years of age, but he really hasn’t been at the level that Mourinho would have expected of him. If you look at the sort of performances that Rashford is putting in currently, for both club and country, they are no better than the ones he put in when he first came into the side two years ago. He has played 80 Premier League matches, but he hasn’t gotten any better.
He has pace and an eye for goal, and although he still has all the attributes needed to be a top player, he just doesn’t seem to use his head. He goes on pretty aimless runs at defenders, with no real end goal, and his finishing product is regularly poor. Clearly, this doesn’t mean that he is a poor player, but Mourinho has trusted him in crucial moments, and he simply hasn’t delivered. He has sat back and coasted for the past couple of years, without really getting much better.
