23 Dec 2018 18:46:45
There really are no conclusions to be drawn from just one match but it was good to see players moving with pace instead of moving lethargically into spaces where they became isolated, cutting off all passing opportunities.

Under Mourinho the individual actions of the players had broken down into atomized parts and ceased to function within the structure of the team. When that happens the whole performs worse than the sum of the parts, discord grows within the team and obviously between the team and the manager and the fans. Clearly it was beyond fixing.

Ego is essential for success but it must express itself within the overall function of the team otherwise it becomes destructive. Staying at the top requires continual evolution of the ego to ever-changing functionalities. I think that's Mourinho's main weakness. His ego is stuck in the past, incapable of development, and thus, when things go wrong, out comes his arrogance, his temper, the insults, and the blaming of others. Thus the winner becomes the whiner.


1.) 23 Dec 2018
23 Dec 2018 21:50:33
The temptation is to blame JM, even more tempting because first game in we scored 5 goals. There is far more wring with our club than simply Jose.

The players downed tools. He did not have the full support of the board, and therefore was doomed to fail from the start. It was a marriage of inconvenience.

Let's show him the class that he has shown us and call it just something that didn't quite work.

The guy has won everything in football. He won us the one trophy we had never won in our illustrious history. I think to wave him off with a sneer and a shout of him being a dinosaur from the past is to show a classlessness that I would hope we could all rise above.

He will not be remembered as a united great, but he will be remembered as a premiership great and a great of this generation of football. I certainly wish the guy well.

{Ed025's Note - i dont DB, he was a selfish egotistical maniac who thought he was better than man utd, good riddance i say mate..


2.) 23 Dec 2018
23 Dec 2018 22:57:59
Dodgy, the support of the board argument is already looking hollow. He wanted centre backs despite buying Lindelof and Bailly. Lindelof looked great for Benfica, for Sweden at the World Cup and yesterday for United. The common denominator - playing for teams utilising a high line and pressing from the front.

It simply didn't suit him playing in a low block, yet it was all he ever endured under Mourinho. Bailly's the same and many regard him a better player and better prospect than Lindelof. They're both good centre backs who were mismanaged, played to their weaknesses not their strengths. Why would the board pay 60-70 million for Alderweireld when he could suffer the same fate. Can we be sure that he would have suited the low block defensive system?

The board were at fault, but not for not backing Jose, for not sacking him in the summer.


3.) 23 Dec 2018
23 Dec 2018 22:59:14
I can think of many managers who will be considered greater than Mourinho as far as the English game alone is concerned: Ferguson, Busby, Shankley, Paisley, Wenger and Clough for starters. No one can take away what he accomplished at Porto and Inter, but that's not the EPL.

For a brief time Mourinho shone. He was creature of his time who built a personal mystique that served him well. He combined it with Abramovic's money to maximum effect. But ultimately he was also more destructive than any of them. His time at United was a sad coda to the nature of his career.

In any event my post has nothing to do with the problems at our club which I agree have been far deeper than Mourinho. To say he wasn't supported is a little rich though. During his 2 1/ 2 years we bought Bailly, Lindelof, Pogba, Fred, Dalot, Lukaku, Mkhtaryan, Sanchez, Ibrahimovic, and Matic. Most of them went backwards, as did our younger existing players. I don't wish him ill, but it's self evident that his reign has been a failure despite the minor trophy successes.


4.) 23 Dec 2018
23 Dec 2018 23:49:55
He was utterley miserable, he made the players miserable and the fans miserable, his tactics where not that of a Man Utd manager they were that of a relegation team, he constantly put our players down knocking there confidence in public, anyone would think he had Burnley’s squad the way he went on, a black cloud has been lifted with him gone and I for one am delighted. He can take his low block and massive head to destinations new and fall out with another team.


5.) 24 Dec 2018
24 Dec 2018 00:32:46
Rui Faria used to prepare his teams for his tactics. Faria had gone and Carrick and McKenna could not offer the same type of coaching for his tactics. Alan Shearer mentioned united stopped running for Mourinho, but Mourinhos tactics were at fault for that not the players. But I don't agree with the narrative that Jose tactics are in the past and football has moved on. OGS will get the praise for the game but for me that was Carrick and McKenna's coaching.


6.) 24 Dec 2018
24 Dec 2018 08:12:33
classy Manchester United fans. Classy. Why would Poch want to come here when he knows that these are the fans that support the so called biggest club in the world. Riding on a wave of one good game. Just last week after a similar result/ game, everyone was like - its just Fulham. Now they are talking like its Barcelona.


7.) 24 Dec 2018
24 Dec 2018 09:41:41
That was the point of my post UA. If I was Poch I'd stay at Tottenham.


8.) 24 Dec 2018
24 Dec 2018 10:34:45
UA,

What are you on about? Are we supposed to have watched the game on Saturday and just ignore that we were a million miles better than in the previous games, even the majority of the Fulham game. If you didn't notice the difference I suggest you go watch the 2 games again, watch how many one touch quick passes we played against Fulham, it is like chalk and cheese.

Surely what Poch would see here are fans that support a manager who plays a style that suits his players strengths, we weren't asking for the moon, some people will argue they want style, others will argue they want results, that is fair enough. If the style is terrible and we are struggling to get results in almost every game then there isn't really anything to support.


9.) 24 Dec 2018
24 Dec 2018 11:21:40
Anyone think Jose downed tools?

I think sfrim summer he has been creating so much friction with the view of creating a back me or sack me situation.

I think the players deserve some criticism but things where very toxic in the end.


10.) 24 Dec 2018
24 Dec 2018 13:06:06
Jose was class and reamin class. It is just that he is a bit old school and players now a days are like barbie dolls.


11.) 24 Dec 2018
24 Dec 2018 14:49:52
Singh,

Class? Not a word I’ve ever heard Jose described as to be honest mate.

{Ed025's Note - he must have meant...ASS GDS.. :)


12.) 24 Dec 2018
24 Dec 2018 21:12:06
José is one of the most classless people that have ever been in the game. The Chelsea doctor, the eye-gouging in Madrid, his digs at Benitez and his wife, his barbs against Wenger. The list is endless. His behaviour has been an embarrassment over the years, but we forgot all that in our desire to hail him as our saviour.