Jose Mourinho has to prove a point in the Champions League as Manchester United play Valencia
By Miguel Delaney
The description, from two senior figures in the Manchester United dressing room, is that the mood there is “depressingly bad”. And this was in the few days before the dismal defeat to West Ham.
The scene afterwards was naturally even worse, further feeding this cycle of bad results and escalating pressure to win the next game - a tough Champions League encounter against Valencia, that comes from this wider cycle in Jose Mourinho’s career. No one can now doubt this really is one of those seasons. No one can doubt this now feels all in the balance, maybe the end game. Results may force executive vicechai rman Ed Woodward hand.
It are already dismal. The bestpaid squad in world football, and one expected to at least challenge for the title, has three defeats and a draw from seven games. That is just 10 points, with a return of 10 goals for and 12 against making such a sorry sight look worse. Even more conspicuously, it leaves Mourinho with just two points more than Chelsea at this exact same stage in 2015-16. It is also the exact same number of points that David Moyes had after seven games in 2013-14, making it United’s joint-worst start since 1990 and joint third worst since the introduction of three points for a win.
All of this is also why the bad atmosphere - and then all of the bad results that follow - go way beyond the Paul Pogba situation, even if that is where Mourinho does deserve some sympathy. As anyone who has objectively followed the patterns of Mourinho’s career could have easily predicted, he does not seem to have responses to things turning badly, and less so as the game evolves. So it was after the League Cup elimination to Derby County on Tuesday, Mourinho locked himself away with his staff for hours trying to come up with something different tactically for West Ham.
The “solution” was this: a bizarre three-at-the-back with Scott McTominay, and a needlessly negative system against a Manuel Pellegrini team whose specific problems have been: a high line, a porousness at the back, a lack of cohesion. How do you come to the decision to sit back against that? This is his default, his fundamental nature as a manager: an inherent defensiveness and a caution, in a modern game where attacking is more dominant than ever.
Then there is most relevantly the complete lack of connection between Mourinho and the squad, his hardedged management ironically making this team so soft, so easily beatable. This just isn’t a group of players in thrall to him. They don’t all dislike him, but he’s lost a lot of them, and it has meant losing so many games.
The description, from two senior figures in the Manchester United dressing room, is that the mood there is “depressingly bad”. And this was in the few days before the dismal defeat to West Ham.
The scene afterwards was naturally even worse, further feeding this cycle of bad results and escalating pressure to win the next game - a tough Champions League encounter against Valencia, that comes from this wider cycle in Jose Mourinho’s career. No one can now doubt this really is one of those seasons. No one can doubt this now feels all in the balance, maybe the end game. Results may force executive vicechai rman Ed Woodward hand.
It are already dismal. The bestpaid squad in world football, and one expected to at least challenge for the title, has three defeats and a draw from seven games. That is just 10 points, with a return of 10 goals for and 12 against making such a sorry sight look worse. Even more conspicuously, it leaves Mourinho with just two points more than Chelsea at this exact same stage in 2015-16. It is also the exact same number of points that David Moyes had after seven games in 2013-14, making it United’s joint-worst start since 1990 and joint third worst since the introduction of three points for a win.
All of this is also why the bad atmosphere - and then all of the bad results that follow - go way beyond the Paul Pogba situation, even if that is where Mourinho does deserve some sympathy. As anyone who has objectively followed the patterns of Mourinho’s career could have easily predicted, he does not seem to have responses to things turning badly, and less so as the game evolves. So it was after the League Cup elimination to Derby County on Tuesday, Mourinho locked himself away with his staff for hours trying to come up with something different tactically for West Ham.
The “solution” was this: a bizarre three-at-the-back with Scott McTominay, and a needlessly negative system against a Manuel Pellegrini team whose specific problems have been: a high line, a porousness at the back, a lack of cohesion. How do you come to the decision to sit back against that? This is his default, his fundamental nature as a manager: an inherent defensiveness and a caution, in a modern game where attacking is more dominant than ever.
Then there is most relevantly the complete lack of connection between Mourinho and the squad, his hardedged management ironically making this team so soft, so easily beatable. This just isn’t a group of players in thrall to him. They don’t all dislike him, but he’s lost a lot of them, and it has meant losing so many games.