Manchester United Are Already In Recovery Under Jose Mourinho
Paul Ansorge |
November 23, 2016 |
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Football News 24/7
There now follows a party political broadcast on behalf of the “Jose Mourinho is doing a good job as Manchester United manager” party.
“Ladies and gentlemen, fellow travellers down this crazy old world we call life, I recognise your concerns. United—our dear, beloved old institution—is struggling a bit at the moment. Nine points off Chelsea in top spot, six off Arsenal in fourth.
It’s not where any of us want to be.
I recognise your pre-appointment concerns about Mourinho, too, reasonable as they were. Indeed, I shared some of them.
And there have been a few worrying moments this season. His odd handling of Henrikh Mkhitaryan, a prodigiously gifted footballer rendered surplus to requirements. His public criticisms of Luke Shaw, a kid recovering from a broken leg. His “Bastian Schweinsteiger is literally dead to me” handling of a player being paid some £200,000 every single week for taking poignant selfies of himself walking in the woods.
There have been actual bad performances on the pitch too, Manchester City at home, Watford and Chelsea away. These cannot be ignored.
The Europa League campaign has been a mostly-dull mess. That probably can be ignored, though, given its status as the European League Cup. It is a very difficult competition to be involved in, given its odd scheduling and significant travel requirements. It is a very difficult competition to win, too, given how many good teams have to be overcome in its knockout stages. And then if you do win it no one really cares all that much. Indeed, the Europa League has been the bane of United’s season so far. That and international breaks have arrived at just the wrong time, dulling momentum and breaking the club’s stride.
But at Old Trafford in the league—that United are currently nine points off the top of—the green shoots of recovery are clearly showing. Seventy-four shots in the past three games, three games in a row in which Mourinho had his team playing vibrant attacking football. A misfiring world-class centre-forward, some unfortunate refereeing and some outstanding goalkeeping were all that stood between his side and the six more points they would need by now to be challenging for the title.
How he handles this run of misfortune, these near misses which have cost United so dearly, will be crucial. What should happen next, though, is that more of these chances get converted, the team strings some wins together and everything looks a lot rosier after Christmas. Of course, it could turn into a more serious wobble, and that is a pitfall to be avoided, but given the performance levels his side has mustered that seems the less likely outcome.
So far Mourinho has brought in real talent—including some of the world’s best—and rebalanced United’s midfield, dramatically changed their playing style and got the team creating chance after chance. He has dealt with the Wayne Rooney issue with some aplomb, giving him plenty of chances to prove himself then dropping him when he didn’t, but keeping him well enough onside to play an important squad role.
It has not all gone to plan, but nothing ever does and it is very early days. Ultimately, he could not have done a great deal more by now. This risks looking foolish in the years ahead, but for now it looks like Mourinho is laying solid foundations for his time in charge.
He is of the factually correct opinion that Eric Cantona is the greatest footballer in history—there may have been others who were better at football, but hey, what's football in the grand scheme of things. He also finds writing about himself in the third person unsettling.