Has Jose Mourinho lost it?

Robbo

Robbo

Robbo

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Robust. Difficult to beat. Solid set pieces offensively and defensively. Predictable but effective. Stealing games on the counter.

Things you typically associate with Jose Mourinho sides, and he had a... charisma, which like the above points, seems to have gone.

Earlier this season, even when things have been going well, he's seemed miserable, like he never really wanted to be at Manchester United. The one exception was when he won the Europa League final (failure to do so would have been a total embarrassment though).

I've always liked Mourinho and I knew exactly what we'd be getting into if he was our manager. I hoped he'd change and be here long term but even if he didn't, it would have been OK as his methods are effective at least for a couple of seasons.

I hope things get sorted out, and I haven't yet written him off, but to me it looks like we've had a few wobbly moments and at the earliest sign of a problem, he's totally imploded - presumably behind the scenes too judging by the players.

Just what has gone wrong? Will anything change?
 
Shamikebab said:
It's too early to say really. We're on a poor run of form at the moment but we're still second in the league and improved over last season in every area. I don't think many fans expected to win the league this year, just improve from last year. Few could have anticipated City turning into one of the best teams on the planet.
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Yes, it's not all bad looking at the league table, but we started really well. We were even top at a few points ahead of City, then cracks started to appear and we've looked woeful over the last few weeks.

Ignoring the results for a moment, the team just look like they aren't being coached at all - which is very alarming. We resort to Ashley Young, an old winger playing as a defender, whipping in crosses all afternoon. Great.

Mourinho already got his excuse in weeks ago, it's because we didn't sign Perisic. Would he be helping? Almost certainly, but it would have been better to get him and a sub £90m striker (if both weren't an option).
 
Really...

Responding to a question that such a gap might be unacceptable for a club of United's stature, Mourinho said in his press conference: "One thing is a big club and another thing is a big football team. They are two different things.

"We are in the second year of trying to rebuild a football team that is not one of the best teams in the world. Manchester City buy full-backs for the price of strikers. When you speak about big football clubs, you are speaking about the history of the club."

When it was pointed out United have spent heavily - roughly £286m - since Mourinho took charge in 2016, the Portuguese replied: "OK, (but) it is not enough. The price for the big clubs is different than for the other clubs.
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The financial thing is no excuse, yes Pep inherited a slightly better side, but that gap could have been closed. How, after spending £300m recently, are we relying on Jesse Lingard to stop us losing to Burnley? It's absolutely crazy. Recruitment needs a total overhaul, we need some sort of vision. We can overpay if required but we have to buy the best up and coming players. There are loads of them out there.

I think the way the club is run needs an overhaul too. The club has the most critical thing to success: money. We can match and even outspend City if we wish to, even though the Glazers will try and rein things in if we are staying in the top 4 spots. They haven't seemed too tight so far (despite many negatives).

It's clear there has been no plan in place since SAF left, a manager who could elevate average players to the very highest level, without that everything is a mess.

BaZ87 said:
What's gone wrong? Man City. Mourinho's no longer able to just spend a fortune and rely on his percentage tactics to win him the league that's served him so well until now. He's got a rival that can match him financially and more importantly, is doing so much more than just spending money. I mentioned it in the spoilers thread the other day, Pep has taken so many City players on to another level where as I can't think of one Utd player that Mourinho's significantly improved. Furthermore, Pep isn't just playing percentage football - Mourinho's always gone into the big games with a don't lose mentality, believing that if he comes out unscathed he'll win the league in the other games. The problem is there's now too many big matches for that to work and more importantly, Pep and City are going into these games with a winning mentality and actually winning them too.

Mourinho's doing nothing different to what he's done wherever he's been. When things are going well he's the loveable rogue but when things aren't going well it's his players, officials, the board or even the media's fault. And no, nothing will change. When Mourinho rejoined Chelsea we were told he'd changed and things would be different. When he joined Utd we were told he'd changed and things would be different. He's the same **** he's always been.
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While I don't disagree, Mourinho teams in the second year at least don't generally look this bad against the weaker sides. His tactics in the bigger games I have no issue with, it's more or less what SAF often did.

The big issue I have at the moment is not our league position, it's that we are getting worse as the weeks go by. I can accept Man City are a better side, playing better football and have better players, but we look so very poor. As Man City disppear off into the horizon, we are playing like an average mid table side.

There were shades of Moyes vs Fulham (death by a thousand crosses) against Burnley. That says it all.
 
For me it's not so much the results, but the football on the pitch and atmosphere around the club. And no, it isn't typical Mourinho, it looks like typical Moyes Utd now. Thoroughly depressing.

It's seriously starting to feel like it did with LvG too, indifferent about results, expecting to be bored by performances. Dull.

From day one Mourinho hasn't looked happy, and as the weeks go by, his position looks more and more untenable. But we shall see, January may present a chance to improve things, if this continues then something more drastic will need to be done...

Ollie Holt has done an article blaming Woodward and Glazers and defending Mourinho: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-5223501/Woodward-know-like-Mourinhos-enemy.html

If what's being said is true then you'd have to sympathise with Mourinho but it really doesn't look like the purse strings are that tight. You don't need to spend £90m on Pogba's and similar on Lukaku's to secure top 4.
 
According to the latest reports Jose and the club are in more advanced discussions regarding a contract extension. I would hope this means Jose has got his own way - money to buy whoever he wants.

Whether he's able to improve players or not, you really have to spend a lot regardless these days.
 
His greatest success is Lingard, without a doubt, Pep gets tons of praise for improving Sterling - a £50m player in a much better team - yet Lingard is an academy player. Granted he has to maintain it, but so does Sterling.

It's hard to anticipate really, the board will probably be keen to keep him, from a business sense he has a better track record than any manager we could replace him with. Things will need to keep improving though.
 
Moses said:
Well, the argument would be that Guardiola has done it with multiple players, so it’s easier to argue he’s responsible... whereas Mourinho has done it with Lingard... but hasn’t with other high profile players... so was Lingard’s improvement attributable to him?

Well, Ancelotti is available, no? Or poach Poch...
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Ancelotti I'm not convinced is the ideal man to rebuild a squad (as still needs doing here despite the money spent). Poch is good I suppose, any excuse to leave Spurs!
 
So here we are.

He's throwing most of the players under the bus, and has even attempted to blame the fans.

No more excuses, the expectation of half decent football is not unreasonable. Enough money has been spent.

The Portuguese David Moyes. Marvellous.
 
However you look at it, a better manager could get more out of the players, play far better football and actually show some ambition. I'm all for defensive football when it's required and if it works, but this is just absolutely horrendous, and there are no signs of it getting better. Mourinho's performance as manager is nothing short of an embarrassment and his comments and press conferences are equally bad.

dannyjo22 said:
It what way has Lukaku improved? His first touch is still crap, his hold up play is still crap and he still only scores multiple goals against the dross. What he can do he does well but he’s the most one dimensional forward I can remember at that level.
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His all round game has dramatically improved in 2018, even against better teams. He's mainly feeding off scraps too which is never easy.
 
Coming back to this topic, I am struggling with Mourinho really.

Firstly, off the pitch I don't have a big problem with him, I like that he winds everyone up and acts a bit weird, no issue there.

However, on the pitch, and likely in the dressing room, the situation is dire. He doesn't like or rate half of the squad, some justifiably, but he's brought in quite a few of these players. And on that topic, his transfers have largely failed, and he's made no effort to coach the players and improve the tactics.

The team are set up in a very rigid fashion and are too worried about their defensive duties to play any creative football. Either that or they aren't making an effort for him, which creates another issue.

I don't think he'll go this summer, but this coming season will be telling, he either changes and adapts, or he'll be sacked and pretty much finished as a top level club manager.

I am really hopeful we get some good players in this summer, and somehow things change on the pitch, but I suspect before Christmas most of the fans will want him gone and the football will still be poor.

I genuinely thought he might change, but there's absolutely no sign of that so far.
 
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