The last thing Mourinho wants is to finish a distant 6th, get embarrassed by PSG and then a new manager have the opportunity to make tangible changes in the summer and for things to improve.
I don't think he would give a single ****. We could get in a new manager, win the league by 10 points and sign a single player in the summer and Mourinho would still genuinely think that the new manager was lucky or the players suddenly started playing for no reason or that the single new signing under his management would have turned United into world beaters. Hes delusional and repeatedly bemoans the lack of qualities in our players that his management style is completely at odds with creating. He looks at Liverpool and doesn't see a well drilled team that moves as a unit and works as a team. He doesn't see that average players are giving their all and simply know their jobs and do them. He sees a side that just works hard while his players don't. He sees players that are in form as a result of luck not management.
He looks at Spurs and sees their top players as pure luck and not the result of faith and good coaching. He sees a defender at another club thats performing well and thinks that if that defender was at United suddenly we would be solid at the back despite our complete tactical ineptitude. It boggles my mind that he is happy to publicly complain about issues entirely of his own making whilst giving examples of good management and their results as proof he "doesn't have the players".
Like
@nicktay2605, I'm not convinced it makes complete sense to sack him now and not just because I'm enjoying the mess Utd are in. Utd have been completely rudderless since Fergie and Gill went, there's no clear idea of what they want to do nor how they're going to do it. If you're a manager like Pochettino (for example) then why are you going to leave Spurs for Utd when you have no idea what you're walking in to? He could go from being one of the most promising managers around with his pick of top jobs to being sacked in 12 months for failing to make the CL with Utd. The first thing Utd must do is decide what sort of club they're going to be and put a plan in place as to how they're going to do it. If Utd are going to go down the Director of Football/Sporting Director route then do it, put the men in place that you want to run the show and then look at the manager then.
Mourinho could have completely ruined a number of players by the end of the season and dug us an even bigger hole to crawl out of if he is left to it. What benefit is there to keeping him until March next year over a caretaker manager?
The biggest issue that Utd are going to face moving forwards is that any new manager is going to have a squad made up of 4 different managers and imo a lot of those players don't really fit into your typical modern, high energy, attack minded managers way of playing. I know a lot of Utd fans are very supportive of the likes of Pogba and Martial but it's not just Mourinho that wouldn't tolerate them - the likes of Pep, Klopp and Poch wouldn't either, the only difference is the alternatives wouldn't be slow, cumbersome players like Lukaku, Matic and Fellaini.
The difference is that Pep, Poch and Klopp would coach their players to play in a particular way and get the best out of them. If they are moved on you would be confident it was because they were not good enough or not a good fit. The players are a product of the manager and ours refuses or is unable to give the team any identity and makes it his business to destroy their confidence instead of build it up. I mean honestly, how many of the Liverpool first XI are truly top class and are coveted by other big teams. VVD, Salah and Firmino. Klopp has turned a number of players that were there before he was into the kind of players he wants. Milner is a prime example of a very limited footballer under a good manager. The sort of player Ferguson always had a lot of. They know their jobs and they do them. Our players don't have a clue what they are doing when they are put on that pitch.
Its a shame really. Mourinho is a decent very good manager and was one of the best not so long ago. I think he bought too many big names and with that many egos in your side it must be an almost impossible job keeping them all happy and pampered.
I seriously think that Man U would be less than 19 points behind Liverpool at the end of the season if he played and managed a team without your Pogba's and players of the like and he fielded a team that just does as they are told and play the football that Jose wants them to play.
Every time is see Man U play there is a serious lack of energy and want to win the game. Yesterday for example looked like you just couldn't be bothered. Get those big names out and give some players who actually care a go at trying to save this Man U season. As far as i can see its the players throwing dummies out that are destroying this Man U season, not so much the manager.
United don't have enough players that would put up with his **** anymore to do that. Mourinho has been laying into the team since before pre-season. Questioning their quality, work ethic, desire, talent and ability constantly. He was manager at Chelsea when they were relegation material and a season and a half later they won the league. To have a manager that can make his players down tools so spectacularly is impressive on some level.
This idea that work rate is 95% of football is utterly ridiculous as well. When you don't know where to run and you don't get the ball when you do make runs then why would you run for the sake of it. Go watch City play for a while and they all know where each other are on the pitch. They play passes without bothering to look because thats where a player should be and do you know what? Hes there 95% of the time because they have trained that movement. Work rate is important but it needs to be with a purpose. All the good teams in the league aren't just running around at 100 miles and hour. Top level footballers will just take you to pieces if you run around like headless chickens. Liverpool took a while to adapt to Klopp and it went wrong at times because a press only works if you do it right. If you don't then you leave yourself vulnerable. The players are not blameless but I put 10% on the board, 10% on the players and 80% on Mourinho.