When I look at Manchester United, all I see at the moment is a team in turmoil.

We are now into Jose Mourinho’s third year as the club’s manager and usually he struggles to get beyond this season. The Portuguese manager often loses the dressing room, results start to falter and the players no longer play for their manager.

If I’m being honest, it looks like history is repeating itself for Jose.

He won a few trophies in his first campaign and he guided The Red Devils to a second place finish last term but now things are looking bleak.

United are now sitting in eighth position in the Premier League after fifteen games. They are a full eighteen points behind league leaders Manchester City and are eight points behind fourth placed Chelsea. Man United currently have a goal difference of minus one!

They haven’t won in their last four league games and that’s simply not good enough!

Mourinho doesn’t seem to have the right answers and his approach is alienating a lot of players as he picks on certain individuals within his playing squad. As we’ve seen in the past, being overly critical of players for a sustained period of time will just create a negativity at a football club and they stop playing for their manager.

The manager left out his two most expensive signings in Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku, in his side’s latest draw with Arsenal. Some might see that as Jose standing up to egos in his dressing room but he was the man that signed them in the first place and he’s not getting the most out of these players. Let’s not forget that both Pogba and Lukaku excelled during this summer’s World Cup, they’ve not become bad players overnight.

The United gaffer is also forever changing his line-ups and formations. Proving he doesn’t know his favoured system and that he’s struggling to get consistency from his players.

It’s funny because some fans look at last night’s draw with The Gunners as a sign that there’s still strength within the team. But I think it just proves the manager isn’t getting the best out of his squad.

Jose seemed to admit as much to the BBC after the game:

“As always we made mistakes and we paid for the mistakes.”

Yes they came back twice to draw the game but Arsenal in recent seasons were a team in decline, yesterday’s result actually shows us that they are improving while United are now falling away. Would Man United have been happy with a draw with Arsenal during the last few years of Arsene Wenger’s reign? I don’t think so.

Unai Emery has managed to come into the Emirates and solve a few problems in North London. He’s brought in players that add fight in the midfield, they play with a new attacking edge and the players clearly believe in his footballing philosophy.

At the moment, Man United players only seem to react when the chips are down! They can’t grab games by the scruff of the neck or dictate vital encounters.

At times the players seem to lack passion and look void of any creativity. Yet we’ve seen this before, during Jose’s last season as Chelsea boss. The players suffer enough criticism from their own boss that they learn to just accept it.

According to The Manchester Evening News, nine first teamers have contracts that expire in 2019. Man Utd have a yearly option on a few of those players but the fact so many have still not signed isn’t a great sign.

United have already taken out that yearly option on goalkeeper David de Gea’s deal (via The Guardian) but again it doesn’t look good if your best player seems reluctant to sign a long term contract to stay at your club.

Potential transfer targets might look at United’s current situation and be put off.

I truly believe that Man United need a big change to happen and that could be sacking their manager.

The board didn’t help Jose Mourinho during the summer, when the boss wanted to bring in some new defenders. They’ve been rotten at the back for much of this season. That hesitation in the transfer market, suggests that the board were already second guessing Jose.

Should they really splash out big on his recommendations this January? Let’s not forget that he’s not getting anywhere near the best out of his current crop, so it would a no from me.

Maybe it’s time to rip off the band aid and bring in someone new to try and get rid of the toxic atmosphere that is surrounding Old Trafford. United’s results tell us that Mourinho just doesn’t have the answers to turn this around.

Posted on December 6th, 2018 by scott
Filed under: Article