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The knives are out, the wolves are baying for blood and it seems a matter of when and not if Manchester United will end its association with José Mourinho.
Ever since the Portuguese tactician was employed in 2016, it has been something akin to riding a rollercoaster to shores unknown.
It would not have taken much for a manager to look good following from the snooze-fest that was Louis Van Gaal’s reign at the Theatre of Dreams. Mourinho delivered the League Cup and the Europa League in his first season thereby negating cries about the style of play and performance in the Premier League, where they finished sixth.
Last season was supposed to be the one where everything came together but once again, he was outshone by his arch-nemesis, Pep Guardiola, whose Manchester City side left everyone else trailing in their wake.
The 3-0 loss at Old Trafford to Tottenham Hotspur last night was only the latest in what has become an ugly atmosphere at United with Mourinho and head honcho Ed Woodward seemingly pulling in different directions, issues with players, turgid football and more.
Here is a look at 5 things that Mourinho has failed to improve upon since he has been at United:
#5 United’s players have not gotten better under Mourinho
When Mourinho was appointed to replace the hapless Van Gaal, a lot of Red Devil fans had expressed the hope that he would help improve the players already at the club.
There was the sense that the players available to Van Gaal could do more than they were doing, and were in need of a tactical genius like the Special One to guide them properly.
Well into his third season, it has become clear to see that this hope was in vain. With the possible exception of Jesse Lingard, it is difficult to say any of the players he inherited have become better players.
Chris Smalling and Phil Jones are still terrible defenders and despite Mourinho’s famous defensive nous, the Englishmen continue to look like comedians attempting to play in central defence.
Marcus Rashford still plays football in the style of an academy player; all pace and zero intelligence, and it’s a wonder how he keeps getting national call-ups. The less said about players like Anthony Martial and Luke Shaw the better.
Mourinho seems to have lost the Midas touch that had helped him transform players like Joe Cole, John Terry, and many others into top-class players.
#4 A failure to rid United of its plethora of average players
One of the most enduring images of Mourinho’s time at Old Trafford has been the sight of Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young being the starting fullbacks for a team like Manchester United.
While these two men are fine professionals, they are in their 30s and to make it worse, are wingers who have been converted into fullbacks.
The Manchester United playing squad is to put it mildly, filled with middling to below average players who have no business playing in a team with Premier League and UEFA Champions League aspirations.
For reasons that are difficult to understand, there has been a reluctance to rid the team and populate the team with quality as Guardiola did at Manchester City.
Lingard, Rashford, Jones, Smalling, Young, Marouane Fellaini, Matteo Darmian are players who should be playing for mid-level clubs in various top leagues. These players have been given opportunities to show what they are capable of and have failed to impress.
While it is true that every title-winning team needs squad players who can contribute from time to time, when a top-level team has the number of average players that United has, it becomes almost impossible for the better players to perform consistently.
#3 His man-management has been quite poor
One of the main reasons why the Special One has been so successful in his career has been his ability to manage players. Wherever he has gone to, Mourinho has been able to get players to buy in completely into his vision and this has translated into trophies and glory.
With hindsight, it has become clear that his time at Real Madrid led to the antsy, always-annoyed Mourinho of today. Before turning up at the Santiago Bernabeu, he had coached players and teams who had been going through a prolonged dry spell and hadn’t done much in their careers (FC Porto, his first stint at Chelsea and his time at Inter Milan). These players were in awe of his abilities and record and were willing to run through walls for him.
At Madrid, he met a dressing room filled with players who had won Euros, World Cups, multiple league titles and Champions Leagues. He was unable to adapt his methods and this led to lots of friction in the dressing room.
At United, his fallouts with players like Paul Pogba, Martial, and Shaw among others have seen these players underperform. His inability to coax consistently good performances from his players has been baffling and his “us-against-the-world” philosophy is one that looks to be at odds with the abilities/mentality of his Manchester United team.
#2 Inability to implement a coherent style of play
What exactly is Manchester United’s style of play under Mourinho? Are they a counter-attacking unit in the mould of his Real Madrid side? Are they a gegenpressing side like Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool? This is perhaps the biggest issue that Mourinho has failed to address since he arrived in Manchester.
The style of play since Sir Alex Ferguson left has been a mix of contrasting styles; cross-and-hope under Moyes, sleep-inducing possession football under Van Gaal and the present confusion under Jose.
He has chopped and changed many times and still looks unsure of his best XI in his third season at the club. The players are still unsure of what the system is and what their roles are within this system.
This confusion has been a huge reason why the football has been boring, staid and misery-inducing. United fans have been treated to a steady diet of ground-out victories against opposition that should have been blown away, ambitionless draws/wins against fellow top-level opponents and the increasingly regular beating by well-drilled sides (think Sevilla and Manchester City last season and Brighton and Spurs this season).
Pundits, fans and even players are confused as to what exactly United under Mourinho is and this will be one of the biggest things for which his tenure will be remembered.
#1 Mourinho’s transfer record at United has been abysmal
There should be no sugar coating it; his transfer record at United has been below average (perhaps terrible would be a better adjective to describe it). Since he joined in 2016, he has spent £388.89m on new talent but a look at his buys would show just how badly he has done.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Pogba, Romelu Lukaku, Nemanja Matic, Victor Lindelof, Eric Bailly are some of the big name purchases he has made and with the exception of Lukaku, it is difficult to make a case that any of them has been a success.
Lindelof has looked like a lost boy making gaffe after gaffe since he joined for £31.5m from Benfica last season. Mkhitaryan was so bad and unrecognizable from his Borussia Dortmund days that it seemed he had been taken over by an alien parasite that sucked away his talent leaving a hollow shell in its place.
The biggest accusation that has been leveled against Mourinho will be that there doesn’t seem to be a plan/coherence behind his transfer policy. Alexis Sanchez was bought from Arsenal without an idea of what he was going to add to the team and with every passing game, the decision to steal him from Guardiola’s clutches begins to look more stupid.
Pogba has done nothing close to what he was doing at Juventus while Chelsea’s eagerness to get rid of Matic looks even more inspired. It is even more galling to note that the better performers; David de Gea, Valencia and the likes were players he inherited.
A decision will probably have to made about Mourinho’s future soon, but there can be no sugarcoating it: it has not been a success.
