The first 5 months of this season seem to be entirely forgotten by some fans.
First 5?? First 2 maybe. It's been largely unmemorable/inconsistent since then until now.
Not that this is a concrete marker, but since the end of September we've managed to score more than 3 goals in a single league game twice. We managed the same feat in the opening two games of the season. I was discussing this last night in the De Gea thread, but we started the season in very good physical condition, hence why we were able to take teams apart so effectively in the latter parts of games. Once the rest of the league caught up with our fitness levels, we started to struggle on a more regular basis.
Our poor form/style can also be attributed to our mentality, however. The manner in which we approached the game away at Liverpool gave confidence to a lot of our opponents. The result was good, but our lack of attacking incentive there almost certainly gave teams the confidence to attack us more. It's almost certainly part of the reason we lost the following game away to Huddersfield.
In terms of style, Mourinho has the capacity to play the best of the three, but clearly opts against doing this at times. I think this is what I find frustrating. If he didn't have the precedent/components to attack more regularly and for prolonged periods in the game, you could understand his "pragmatic" stance more. But we do, and we should be expecting a more fluid style of football given our players/club ethos.
LVG started off by playing fairly attacking football, but that away game to Leicester played a huge role in convincing him to approach things differently. If he'd had the confidence to write that game off as a fluke, I think there's a good chance he would have been around for longer. Moyes is irrelevant in this discussion. The only good football we played under him was due to the players at his disposal/remanence from Fergie's time here.
forgot how dark it was... that point against city though!