Manchester United’s Hierarchy Need To Consider Jose Mourinho’s Position
Manchester United’s third Premier League defeat in just seven league fixtures has seen the club record their worst domestic start to a season since 1989.
In the losses against Brighton & Hove Albion, Tottenham Hotspur and now to West Ham United The Red Devils have looked disjointed, lacklustre and far from being a slick confident team.
People might strongly disagree with me but I truly think that the Man United board need to question the future of their boss Jose Mourinho.
The last time United suffered from similarly poor start to a campaign, Man United had David Moyes in charge at Old Trafford. Things went from bad to worse for the Scotsman that term and he was sacked before the season finished and that year was a write off that set United back big time.
Some pundits and supporters will question the Man Utd players. Now I don’t disagree with people pointing fingers at underperforming talent, they’re paid a phenomenal amount of money and they are letting the fanbase, their manager, themselves and the team down. But you can’t sack all the players and one big issue a lot of the footballers are having at the club start and end with Jose.
In his time at Old Trafford, Mourinho has had pops at various people within his own squad. Luke Shaw has almost been bullied at times from his own gaffer. Youngsters Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford have also been at the end of a few Mourinho rollockings. For me, Eric Bailly is United’s best defender yet the Ivorian can’t get into the Red Devils starting eleven because he too has fallen out of favour with the Portuguese coach.
Obviously the saga currently surrounding Mourinho and star midfielder Paul Pogba is the one that’s caught the eye of nation’s media. It’s a hard one to judge. Jose seems to be fed up with the Frenchman’s attitude, his inconsistent performances and his lack of defensive discipline on the field.
Now others will state that Pogba is better when given more freedom in the engine room, that his performances have been better than most at Old Trafford and that his attitude isn’t in question for the national team nor was it during his spell at Italian giants Juventus.
Paul won the World Cup in the summer, after impressing for Les Bleus. His manager for France, Didier Deschamps, recently came out and explained that he felt the midfielder was misunderstood:
“There’s this idea that he’s a bit individualistic — that’s not the case.”
“I’ve spoken to him about his relationship with the media and I think he’s been unfairly criticised in the past. That’s why there has been this aggressive vibe and he’s had this strained relationship.”
“He joined us ready to become a world champion and he took the whole squad with him.”
If we are being honest, Mourinho has changed since his first stint as Chelsea manager. The Real Madrid job changed him because he felt his players stabbed him in the back. At Stamford Bridge, he always enjoyed great relationships with the team’s key personnel like John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba.
Since then he’s had very problematic issues with star men like Cristiano Ronaldo and Eden Hazard. Now it looks to be Pogba’s turn.
You’ll get some out there telling us that United need to look at Jose’s CV and back him. Now I’d say that the board already let him down and didn’t back him fully during the summer transfer window, the slow start to this season won’t change that problem.
Plus if you really look at his CV, you’ll see that Mourinho (especially recently) has struggled to keep a harmonious squad beyond his second season at a football club. The players stop playing for him because he’s cracked the whip too many times in the previous two years. He uses the carrot and stick approach but by his third season in charge Jose’s lost the carrot!
The playing staff, as well as the fans, want to be winning things and they want to be playing/watching flamboyant football. They are getting neither at the moment and the manager is too stubborn to change his approach now.
So if you’re the United board, who Mourinho has recently criticised, then do you really think the manager can change or more importantly can he get the backing from his team?
After their loss to West Ham today, the manager said:
“I can have complaints with quality and mental approach,”
My issue with this is that Jose is the one that should know his team’s qualities and what they should be like mentally before kick-off. It’s up to him and his management team to have his squad fully focused and prepared for the task in hand.
The simple truth is that Manchester United are currently in decline. It would be wrong for the United board not to question their manager when a rut has clearly set in at the club. I’d urge them to look at potential successors, speak to Mourinho, some senior players and listen to the fans.
They need to then weigh everything up and make a decisive decision.
If they decide on keeping Jose Mourinho then they need to get right behind him and back him. If they don’t believe that he can turn things around and that he’s a major part of the problem then they need to be ruthless and dump their manager!
Posted on September 29th, 2018 by scott
Filed under: Article
the team are not the super players people think they are Lukaku cant hold the ball cant pass precisely is inconsistent but still he gets picked, Pogba has done nothing to justify his purchase and remember Fergie had a good reason for getting rid of him so why buy him back the midfield is a joke the one world class player is the goal keeper and he must be thinking why did he bother..woodward I think is the problem he is a salesman great at making deals for the club and profits for the glazers . but man united is a global football club and exciting attacking football is what they are about not selling t shirts something has to be done before its too late and they turn into a leeds united