Since Alex Ferguson left Man United in 2013, football wise, things have been pretty dire. David Moyes spell in charge was pretty abysmal all round. Louis Van Gaal did well to steady the ship and some would argue his performances warranted another year at the healm. Nevertheless he was sacked. Leading the Manchester United board to hire Jose Mourinho. Before his appointment, the response of United fans to the thought of Mourinho becoming United manager were mixed. Some disliked him as a person, some disliked his football, others could care less about his style of play so long as he won football matches. I personally, was of the opinion that Mourinho had been a successful manager wherever he had been and results come first in football. I also reserved some hope that perhaps after his last disastrous spell at Chelsea, he may have matured enough to know that a different approach is sometimes required with modern day footballers. That maybe he would be different at Man United.
Football and results wise, this season has been nothing special. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Paul Pogba, Eric Bailly and Henrikh Mkhitaryan came to the club at a cost of 157.25 million pounds. With such elite acquisitions added to an already extremely expensively assembled squad, a reasonable level of entertaining football could be expected. There have been glimpses of entertaining stuff and most United fans would say that for the most part it has been an upgrade in that sense over the previous few years. But the few instances of attractive football have begun to fade slowly into the background as the team have failed to win at home in the league since the 11th of February, most recently they have amassed 3 draws in a row against Bournemouth, West Brom and Everton. Adding to a total of 9 draws at home in the league this season.
During this time a pattern which has been evident throughout the season has re-emerged; a failure to break down opposing teams who sit back and defend deep. The last few games especially have seemed like nightmarish reruns of the Fulham home game under David Moyes when we seemed determined to break the Guinness world record for crosses into the box. Lately under Mourinho, Plan A seems to be to “stick it in the mixer”, followed by Plan B with the slight alteration of, “put Fellaini in the box and then stick it in the mixer”. It may be foolish of me to question to tactics of one of the most successful football managers of all time, but having watched United all season, I feel the question must be asked. What are the players being told with respect to attacking on the pitch? On the evidence of watching the team play, it seems to me that there is either no plan whatsoever, or the plan is to go route one. For the manager of Man United, I’m not sure which is worse. The team are much to reliant on individual moments of brilliance from players like Ibrahimovic, a fact which becomes all the more apparent when they are not in the team.
These on field problems however are fixable, even if the plan is throw money at it until a solution is found. What seems increasingly absurd is the way in which Mourinho has treated some of the players in the squad, publicly and privately. Henrikh Mkhitaryan, a world class footballer long before he arrived at United, was benched for half a season in a decision that mystified anyone who had seen him play before. I find it hard to believe that being benched for half the season is what made him acclimatise to the English game, but since his return he’s been excellent so let’s say for the sake of argument it was simply brilliant man management. The situation with Bastian Schweinsteiger is another strange one, albeit more understandable given his age (Mourinho has publicly admitted his regret over his handling of Schweinsteiger). But his recent comments made about Luke Shaw are to me way over the line and not befitting of any man in a position of power, never mind the manager of the football club I love. To publicly question his commitment is one thing, but to throw him into a game like the one against Everton where he played decently given the pressure on him and then say that he only did well because “It was his body with my brain” is on another level. I can see no reasoning for such a comment other than a personal wish to publicly humiliate a player already low on confidence. There is motivating someone to do better and there is what Mourinho is doing now, which is outright bullying of a younger player. From the outside it looks like he has learnt nothing from his past experiences. Instilling this level of conflict and nastiness into a dressing room may work when you’re winning leagues and champions leagues, but Man United are an awful long way off that currently. If Mourinho is to succeed at United he needs to win games, but if he is to be given a chance he needs to have the fans and the players on board. If he continues behaving the way he has over the past few days he will continue to alienate not just players, but fans as well.