The Mourinho Thread: Should he stay or go? | Sacked

[reddaz71]

No manager out there including Pep could get a tune out of this squad, its full of plodders, rank average and insanely overrated players in virtually every position compounded by a CEO utterly out of his depth and owners who are only interested in profits.

The day the two previous incumbents leave is truly the day the club starts to recover but its going to be a very long and painful ride between now and then regardless if Mourinho stays or goes.

 

[Sentient Meat]

So spending £100m’s on the team AGAIN is your answer?

I think we'd be top four with the defensive reinforcements he requested.

If we carry on with Jones and Smalling, aging Valencia and a new manager... do you think anything will change?

 

[Needham]

No manager out there including Pep could get a tune out of this squad, its full of plodders, rank average and insanely overrated players in virtually every position compounded by a CEO utterly out of his depth and owners who are only interested in profits.

The day the two previous incumbents leave is truly the day the club starts to recover but its going to be a very long and painful ride between now and then regardless if Mourinho stays or goes.

The squad is a kind of non funny version of the On the Buses cast but there's no doubt a Pochetinho or an Emery or a David Hasselhoff could have them playing better.

 

[Roboc7]

No manager out there including Pep could get a tune out of this squad, its full of plodders, rank average and insanely overrated players in virtually every position compounded by a CEO utterly out of his depth and owners who are only interested in profits.

The day the two previous incumbents leave is truly the day the club starts to recover but its going to be a very long and painful ride between now and then regardless if Mourinho stays or goes.

Can’t recover with Mourinho in charge no matter what happens behind the scenes. He is doing a terrible job, pretty much any manager couldn’t do worse.

There are clearly issues with quality of players but when the manager creates such a toxic environment and hasn’t inplemented any playing style it’s hopeless.

 

[Utdstar01]

I still don't know what that setup was last night. Truly awful management.

 

[manichester]

There is little forward movement and players run back towards their own half to collect passes over and over again, this is what they must do in training it is coached into them.

 

[Resch]

Noone would complain about Usain Bolt not winning a marathon, everybody would blame his manager for choosing the wrong discipline. Jose chooses the wrong "discipline" most of the time and some people here are still complaining about our players. Jose stopped using the strengths of his players a long time ago and put his ego and his anti-tactics in first place. Noone needs Lukaku up front as long as you do not use his strengths. You could use him as a false nine and he would be shit. You could use him as a bully up front, he would score and open up spaces. It's no magic, no sience, just some basic logic......

 

[Bilbo]

The one and only mitigating factor I can think for what looks like Mourinho’s end game is the eery similarity between what we’re watching now and what we saw under Moyes and Van Gaal. It’s kind of fascinating how the team has managed to be so bad, so consistently, in so many similar ways, under three different managers. In fact, let’s not forget, the “zombie football” phrase was coined when Fergie was still at the club!

I definitely want rid of Mourinho. He’s a toxic presence and he’s not going to turn things round. He’ll just keep picking fights, blaming other people and completely wreck any semblance of a team morale at the club. But fecking hell, it really feels like the shit we watched last night is the new normal for Manchester United. A brand of anti-football that will persist no matter who’s in charge. It’s so difficult to be optimistic when the team have been doing the same things wrong, again and again, for the majority of the last decade.

It is the new normal. We really have no idea how to score goals.

 

[Sassy Colin]

Even Talkshite were laying into Jose last night, think it was Jason Cundy, who's a big Chavs fan.

 

[Adam-Utd]

No manager out there including Pep could get a tune out of this squad, its full of plodders, rank average and insanely overrated players in virtually every position compounded by a CEO utterly out of his depth and owners who are only interested in profits.

The day the two previous incumbents leave is truly the day the club starts to recover but its going to be a very long and painful ride between now and then regardless if Mourinho stays or goes.

Sorry don’t agree. Most of our players are international standard all doing well in those teams.

City were hardly playing miraculously when Guardiola arrived, the difference is night and day since he joined. We might not be breaking records but we’d be doing a hell of a lot better under him IMO.

 

[red thru&thru]

I think we'd be top four with the defensive reinforcements he requested.

If we carry on with Jones and Smalling, aging Valencia and a new manager... do you think anything will change?

So we’d been top if we had signed TA or Maguire? So the rest of the 10 players potential would have be released by that one defender?

 

[Rajma]

Yesterday, all the players some people never stop advocating for, again had their shot at proving Jose wrong for benching them. Again, they flopped. I hope we go back to the line up that played the previous two games. At least most of them put in a good shift.

You do get that lineup was set up to fail from the start? Some are really lacking in critical thinking.

 

[LoveFootball]

All I can say when I watch each game... and I've labored through every single one this season... is that I'm mostly annoyed by the players than anything Jose did.

Usually his substitutions and tactics make sense... I suppose he is responsible for the general morale of the team... but when players who in some cases are paid hundreds of thousands of pounds per week to perform, waltz through the game until the 80th minute... the blame in my mind falls mostly on the players.

You can bench them, you can yell at them, you can compliment them... but ultimately these men are professionals who should be doing better.

We'll see what happens when he's gone, but I hope the 90% of you here are right and there is a renaissance... but then I'd think what assholes they were for stealing all that money during Jose's tenure with their half efforts.

Motivating the team and getting them to perform at their ability is the most important part of a manager/coach job. When the whole team is lacking motivation bar 2 or 3 players then something is wrong with the management.

Well, that's why we gave him $400m to get 11 players over 3 seasons. People keep going on about our squad quality as if it's someone else's job. The only way to improve squad quality is to buy players, Jose has done this and only made the team worse, everyone he has bought is crap, so what's next?

Some people are missing this. Trying to excuse the manager by downplaying the quality of the team is a bizarre reasoning because he got enough time and money to reshape the team on his own vision and decided to keep players like Fellaini, Young, Valencia, Lingard and brought mediocre players like Matic and Lukaku and now suddenly it's someone fault the team is lacking quality. If after 3 seasons we still don't have a team able to compete for major trophies then all blames lie on Jose Mourinho.

And to add, no manager needs an entire new team to perform, even Guardiola didn't get the luxury. Out of all Mourinho's signings, I can't even think about 1 who have been a success, not even Zlatan because we didn't bring him and pay him Messi's level wage to win us an EL and a Cup trophy then feck off after playing for us half a season. His striker he bought for huge fee is a joke of player, and the midfielder maestro he brought for a record transfer is now his number 1 enemy at the club with some people now starting to push the narrative that he wasn't a Mourinho signing, laughable. And some still think this man wasn't backed. I can't think of one person in this world who is master at manipulating reality like Mourinho, even Copperfield doesn't come close.

 

[red thru&thru]

Sorry don’t agree. Most of our players are international standard all doing well in those teams.

City were hardly playing miraculously when Guardiola arrived, the difference is night and day since he joined. We might not be breaking records but we’d be doing a hell of a lot better under him IMO.

100% agree. When City won the league last season, majority of the players were already there that were no where near the league the previous years.

Also, countless times, its been proven what a positive manager can do, with the same set of players.

 

[Mainoldo]

Even Talkshite were laying into Jose last night, think it was Jason Cundy, who's a big Chavs fan.

I remember before we hired him Cundy said he was fed up of Chelsea’s title winning time going 2-0 then downtoolsing every game. If only we wasn’t so giddy about getting this manager.

 

[Sentient Meat]

So we’d been top if we had signed TA or Maguire? So the rest of the 10 players potential would have be released by that one defender?

Toby would have helped... wasn't thrilled with Maguire... but many were linked and as we've seen it would have been better.

He identified a problem... and guess what? We gave up more goals in half a season than we did last year.

Did Mourinho's poor coaching double the problem?

How could it if we are playing so defensively as many here have said.

If we are playing cautious, negative tactics but giving up double the goals... the blame should fall partly on him for choosing Lindelof and Bailly... but more so on Woodward and upper management for not accepting that Jose identified the problem and choosing not to resolve it.

If you want to blame him for lack of scoring... sure... I can see partial blame in that

But you can't simultaneously blame him for giving up goals if he's playing defensively as well.

If we gave up half the goals... we'd be 28 goals for and 13 against.

Somehow people have found a way to blame him for doubling the goals against and having the 2nd worst clean sheet record... as well as playing cowardly and not scoring.

For me it makes sense only for him to be responsible for one or the other.

 

[Cee90]

We are a bit of a joke.

I wonder if Woodward and the board will really wait until it's mathematically impossible for us to get top 4 before they get rid of him?

What if it gets worse than this and we continue to lose? Surely they understand about brand perception, and the damage he is inflicting on the club?

 

[Patrick08]

Yesterday, all the players some people never stop advocating for, again had their shot at proving Jose wrong for benching them. Again, they flopped. I hope we go back to the line up that played the previous two games. At least most of them put in a good shift.

But it would be better if he applied same standards for all the players in the squad. He is biased towards some players, namely matic, Lukaku, young, fellani

 

[OneUnited24]

So we’d been top if we had signed TA or Maguire? So the rest of the 10 players potential would have be released by that one defender?

Don't get me wrong i want him out but i do feel had we signed a more established CB (Toby not Maguire) we would be in a better position than now.

Last season we set up to protect our back four, this season we dont. We're in no-mans land atm where we try to attack (but suck at it) and our defenders are exposed more which gives us problems because they're rubbish.

 

[BRobson]

I think we have to keep him for a least 1 more year, so he can have 2 more transfer windows (in-which he's backed). If he gets the left sided center back that he wants, he might then trust them and lose the defensive midfielder covering them, maybe then we can have an extra forward to play off the striker. As painful as it is to watch at times, I think it'd be unfair to call it time on him. We have a great keeper and Midfielders and are just short of 1-2 players.

 

[Camilo]

Just get him out of here. We've the most talented squad we've had in years and it's being wasted by this half-wit.

 

[red thru&thru]

Toby would have helped... wasn't thrilled with Maguire... but many were linked and as we've seen it would have been better.

He identified a problem... and guess what? We gave up more goals in half a season than we did last year.

Did Mourinho's poor coaching double the problem?

How could it if we are playing so defensively as many here have said.

If we are playing cautious, negative tactics but giving up double the goals... the blame should fall partly on him for choosing Lindelof and Bailly... but more so on Woodward and upper management for not accepting that Jose identified the problem and choosing not to resolve it.

If you want to blame him for lack of scoring... sure... I can see partial blame in that

But you can't simultaneously blame him for giving up goals if he's playing defensively as well.

If we gave up half the goals... we'd be 28 goals for and 13 against.

Somehow people have found a way to blame him for doubling the goals against and having the 2nd worst clean sheet record... as well as playing cowardly and not scoring.

For me it makes sense only for him to be responsible for one or the other.

But we were playing defensively last year and finished 2nd. Spurs finished behind us last year and with the exact same players, they’re 3rd.

But what I don’t get is, why is EVERY single of our players been so poor this season? I include DDG in this. Is that all to do with that ONE defender?

Would you say it’s anytto do with the negative comments about his players throughout the whole season?

Last season we finished 2nd BECAUSE of him. This year we’re so poor NOT because of him! Sums him up really.

 

[rampo]

Toby would have helped... wasn't thrilled with Maguire... but many were linked and as we've seen it would have been better.

He identified a problem... and guess what? We gave up more goals in half a season than we did last year.

Did Mourinho's poor coaching double the problem?

How could it if we are playing so defensively as many here have said.

If we are playing cautious, negative tactics but giving up double the goals... the blame should fall partly on him for choosing Lindelof and Bailly... but more so on Woodward and upper management for not accepting that Jose identified the problem and choosing not to resolve it.

If you want to blame him for lack of scoring... sure... I can see partial blame in that

But you can't simultaneously blame him for giving up goals if he's playing defensively as well.

If we gave up half the goals... we'd be 28 goals for and 13 against.

Somehow people have found a way to blame him for doubling the goals against and having the 2nd worst clean sheet record... as well as playing cowardly and not scoring.

For me it makes sense only for him to be responsible for one or the other.

You can play defensively and still give up goals, you know. It just means you are playing shit even defensively and that is exactly the state of our team.

 

[captain666]

Any manager that asks his players to train at 4pm on Christmas Day is a complete cnut,hopefully he'll be gone by then!

 

[buchansleftleg]

I've never wanted United to lose a game but I am actually starting to wonder if a hammering by Liverpool is what the club needs to move forward and pluck out this manager.

I've always been pro Manchester and not minded that, if we weren't winning the league, it was good that it was City rather than the scousers.

However that gives us the easy excuse about not being able to match their expenditure etc and it is a getout clause Jose is using all the time now.

Well we can match Liverpool's expenditure....we can buy those players....the missing factor is they have a manager that can develop those players and improve existing ones to build a cohesive squad that is keeping pace with City.

For the first time in my life I look at Liverpool and say "That's what we should be doing". I can't believe I am saying that after years of watching them win titles in the 70's and 80's when I always thought they didn't win the league by beautiful football but by guile, hard craft and influence.

So that is where Jose has pushed me...I'd actually prefer Liverpool to win the league, as that would show us it can be done....with the right manager in charge.

 

[TrueRed79]

Just shows you what a spineless little runt Woodward is that Mourinho still has a job. I mean, it's one thing for Jose to be completely inept at coaching a team to win games and set the right tactics, but it's Woodwards job to fire staff who are failing the minimum standards at a club like Utd. What a feckin joke we are.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

I've never wanted United to lose a game but I am actually starting to wonder if a hammering by Liverpool is what the club needs to move forward and pluck out this manager.

I've always been pro Manchester and not minded that, if we weren't winning the league, it was good that it was City rather than the scousers.

However that gives us the easy excuse about not being able to match their expenditure etc and it is a getout clause Jose is using all the time now.

Well we can match Liverpool's expenditure....we can buy those players....the missing factor is they have a manager that can develop those players and improve existing ones to build a cohesive squad that is keeping pace with City.

For the first time in my life I look at Liverpool and say "That's what we should be doing". I can't believe I am saying that after years of watching them win titles in the 70's and 80's when I always thought they didn't win the league by beautiful football but by guile, hard craft and influence.

So that is where Jose has pushed me...I'd actually prefer Liverpool to win the league, as that would show us it can be done....with the right manager in charge.

Steady on! I’m totally on board with being ok with us losing a load of matches, if that accelerates change, but you can feck right off with wanting the scousers to win the league to prove a point. Have you completely lost your mind?!?

 

[arthurka]

Jose clearly not happy with the players at all

They look even less happy with him!

 

[Sentient Meat]

But we were playing defensively last year and finished 2nd. Spurs finished behind us last year and with the exact same players, they’re 3rd.

But what I don’t get is, why is EVERY single of our players been so poor this season? I include DDG in this. Is that all to do with that ONE defender?

Would you say it’s anytto do with the negative comments about his players throughout the whole season?

Last season we finished 2nd BECAUSE of him. This year we’re so poor NOT because of him! Sums him up really.

It's a fair point that many have made about morale... but I already addressed that if your star player attempts to assert his will over the team... you can either let it happen and be a "players' manager" or you can assert your own will. It worked in the case of Shaw... possibly with Martial... not so well with Pogba.

Personally I'd go with Jose and his years of trophies... seems like most here go with Pogba and the players.

When there's this large of critical mass against him... I can't help but feel an inevitability about his dismissal... but I think he was dealt a bad hand in this case.

I hope we beat Liverpool and turn the season around and Jose gets saved... but damn it's hard to believe after watching the Valencia match.

 

[Ibrahimorich]

Imagine the reaction when a journalist pulls up the "specialist in failure" quote.

I would fecking LOVE it, LOVE IT, if this happened. Just to see his reaction.

Journo: Jose, you once called Arsene Wenger a specialist in failure. Given your win rate this season, can you now apply the same moniker to yourself?
Jose: RESPECT! RESPECT! RESPECT! *walks out*

 

[Johan07]

I am very much Mourinhp out, but yesterdays result doesnt really matter in the whole scheme of things. Juventus lost in Bern, and fecking Real lost at home to CSKA 0-3. There are always a lot of weird results in dead rubber games.
The Liverpool game on Sunday though: We need to put in a performance there and hopefully a result. If we are convincingly beaten or worse, Mourinho needs to hand in his resignation Monday morning IMO.

 

[dwd]

How many times have we lost this season?

 

[royboy16]

Changed my vote to No.Time to part company once the season is over before he does anymore damage.
I hate watching this Utd team.

 

[Bilbo]

Toby would have helped... wasn't thrilled with Maguire... but many were linked and as we've seen it would have been better.

He identified a problem... and guess what? We gave up more goals in half a season than we did last year.

Did Mourinho's poor coaching double the problem?

How could it if we are playing so defensively as many here have said.

If we are playing cautious, negative tactics but giving up double the goals... the blame should fall partly on him for choosing Lindelof and Bailly... but more so on Woodward and upper management for not accepting that Jose identified the problem and choosing not to resolve it.

If you want to blame him for lack of scoring... sure... I can see partial blame in that

But you can't simultaneously blame him for giving up goals if he's playing defensively as well.

If we gave up half the goals... we'd be 28 goals for and 13 against.

Somehow people have found a way to blame him for doubling the goals against and having the 2nd worst clean sheet record... as well as playing cowardly and not scoring.

For me it makes sense only for him to be responsible for one or the other.

Many people, myself included, believe that he helped create the problem.

 

[arthurka]

Changed my vote to No.Time to part company once the season is over before he does anymore damage.
I hate watching this Utd team.

Welcome.. Took you a while.

 

[reddaz71]

Sorry don’t agree. Most of our players are international standard all doing well in those teams.

City were hardly playing miraculously when Guardiola arrived, the difference is night and day since he joined. We might not be breaking records but we’d be doing a hell of a lot better under him IMO.

Disagree, Pep would not improve the likes of Jones,Fellaini,Young,Valencia,Smalling,Matic,Lukaku

 

[Sentient Meat]

Many people, myself included, believe that he helped create the problem.

Wait, by asking for defensive reinforcements in advance of the season and playing with defensive, negative tactics... he created a defensive problem?

This is why I'm confused about how he can be the cause of more goals on defense, yet stifling our offense.

The morale issue is a fair point.

But tactically, this doesn't make any sense.

 

[alsabi]

How many times have we lost this season?

Seven, I think? That includes the Derby shootout loss in the Carabao Cup. Out of 23 games played.

 

[Bilbo]

Wait, by asking for defensive reinforcements in advance of the season and playing with defensive, negative tactics... he created a defensive problem?

This is why I'm confused about how he can be the cause of more goals on defense, yet stifling our offense.

The morale issue is a fair point.

But tactically, this doesn't make any sense.

We had the 2nd best defence in the league last season. What changed exactly? The personnel didn't.

Mourinho wanted a centre back. The board didn't want to sign his targets. His idea of the right reaction to this was to start a public slanging match and telling everyone who would listen that our defenders weren't good enough, destroying morale and confidence. We are seeing the results of that this season.

He created the problem because his need to protect his own reputation far outweighs his abilities as a man manager.

 

[dwd]

Seven, I think? That includes the Derby shootout loss in the Carabao Cup. Out of 23 games played.

Weirdly, it feels like a lot more, so 7 doesn't seem so bad, which is obviously crazy to say.