Mourinho comments about our season to L'Equipe

[Bastian]

@criticalanalysis
Mourinho and Pochettino are very different managers, at very different stages in their careers. If Mourinho had won nothing in his career and was at a club like Spurs progressing between the years, he probably would not have a meltdown. Who knows. By that stage he'd won shitloads.

LVG tried to enforce a style. Problem was it was pretty diabolical. Maybe he needed a completely different set of players. But he tried to enforce a philosophy.

Mourinho doesn't have a specific style, per se. He is most definitely a pragmatic manager who adapts according to opponents and occasion.

What we're seeing from Pep and Klopp is really not that common. A progressive style pursued at all costs. In Pep's case it's probably because it requires the most expensive team in the world or a one-team league, or the best group of the best youth academy in the world. In Klopp's case it has taken years to cultivate and I agree, we should have tried to hire him and probably should have had someone other than Woodward talking to him.

 

[el3mel]

I still like the inconsistency of opinions regarding our squad. When Mourinho was in charge the squad was good enough to challenge, can play great football and the manager is the one holding them back. Now the squad is crap and Mourinho is responsible for building this shite and doing crap transfers. No consistency whatsoever. Just changing narrative to blame him for something.

 

[Keeps It tidy]

I still like the inconsistency of opinions regarding our squad. When Mourinho was in charge the squad was good enough to challenge, can play great football and the manager is the one holding them back. Now the squad is crap and Mourinho is responsible for building this shite and doing crap transfers. No consistency whatsoever. Just changing narrative to blame him for something.

Which is exactly what Mourinho did.

 

[Beaucoup]

“The players, the organisation, the ambition” pretty much sums up perfectly why we are fecked until all three are fixed.

 

[bonothom]

Anyone notice that the run of great form under Ole was similar to how United started the 2017/18 season. At the start of that season they were banging in the goals, scored 4 goals in 5 out of the first 8 matches and then the goals just dried up. Everyone blamed Mourinhos tactics but under Ole it's been similar with the added problem of conceding goals easily this season. I think the biggest problem for United is that their forwards are so damn inconsistent.

 

[SouthPredators4]

He was 100% culpable for all the poor purchases and that was due to his primitive tactics and management skills which are largely unsuited in today's society and game. He spent on Pogba, Lukaku, Baily, Fred, Dalot, Sanchez during his tenure while our rivals bought Ake, Salah, Auba, Lacazette, Robertson, Ndidi, Macguire, Fabinho, Artur, Semedo, etc.

 

[mariachi-19]

Who gives a feck what this cretin has to say. He is a big part of the problem at this club and will look to blame every man and his dog for his failures and you muppets will lap it up with "spot on" comments. He's playing you for fecking fools to save his reputation. He was looking like an absolute mug around PSG which is why he shut the feck up.

If moyes said the same thing you'd all tell him to feck off, but this cnut spent hundreds of millions on shit yet.. "spot on".

The only "spot on" thing about Mourinho is that he got the arse.

 

[lawliet354]

Probably the only manager that manage to turn fans into hating their players because he's only capable of boasting about his own achievement without any responsibilities for his failure. The 3 fingers gesture is the most embarrassing thing that United manager have done

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

I don't think he's insinuating that it's just one specific thing. But remembering that game, I can't think of more high intensity midfield performances all season than Fred and McTominay in that game. If that was our regular standard, we'd be in far better shape.

That performance has now been overrated to epic heights.

We fluked it.

Like Chelsea did in 2012 vs Barcelona.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Whatever Jose says, it still doesn't deter from the fact that he failed.

The man spoke about competing for the title for 2 consecutive seasons. In 2016-2017 once he got his '4th' and then again in 2017-2018 with his whole desperate speech in pre-season.

He sabotaged the season from the start with his constant whining, petty digs and inability to coach. If he's the 'best manager'(which he clearly isn't), he could have managed the team much better.

He failed.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

I still like the inconsistency of opinions regarding our squad. When Mourinho was in charge the squad was good enough to challenge, can play great football and the manager is the one holding them back. Now the squad is crap and Mourinho is responsible for building this shite and doing crap transfers. No consistency whatsoever. Just changing narrative to blame him for something.

Even disregarding the ability of the squad - Mourinho is not blameless for our current state.

We were no better when he left vs when he arrived. He did nothing to progress us. He had loads of money to spend his first 2 seasons and for the most part, spent it horribly.

 

[Kapardin]

He is a very good pundit and is spot on with his comments. Just wasn't a great manager with us. If he had analysed us like this during his own time with us, he wouldn't have been a failure.

The win at Turin by the way, was every bit as lucky and "out of context" as the PSG win. Juve dominated us in that game.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

I still find it embarrassing that a man who's won so many titles continues touting him finishing SECOND is his greatest managerial achievement potentially. A man who won the Champions League with Porto, won a title with a Chelsea side conceding only 15 goals, the treble with Inter, and beating Pep's Barcelona to La Liga.

 

[clarkydaz]

We crashed and burned so he can afford to be diplomatic. If we finished 3rd you would see a more familiar jose

 

[roonster09]

Whatever Jose says, it still doesn't deter from the fact that he failed.

The man spoke about competing for the title for 2 consecutive seasons. In 2016-2017 once he got his '4th' and then again in 2017-2018 with his whole desperate speech in pre-season.

He sabotaged the season from the start with his constant whining, petty digs and inability to coach. If he's the 'best manager'(which he clearly isn't), he could have managed the team much better.

He failed.

Spot in. He can talk, analyze or laugh at ManUtd, doesn't change that he was one of the big reason for this mess.

 

[devilish]

“The players, the organisation, the ambition” pretty much sums up perfectly why we are fecked until all three are fixed.

What Mou fails to say is that he brought 10 of those players to the team. He's fooling nobody either. His beloved Inter want Conte not him. They know that, as a top manager, he's finished.

 

[devilish]

The point not being about specific players, per se, but attitude. My guess is he feels that attitude of the team was poor and he couldn't bring in players he felt would change that. Which is not the same as absolving him from all blame.

All the players we have can give much more. I can't remember any players consistently seeming to give their all bar McTominay, Ander and Rashford.

The attitude is imposed by the manager whose responsible of bringing in the players with the right attitude and get rid of the players with the wrong attitude.

 

[roonster09]

What Mou fails to say is that he brought 10 of those players to the team. He's fooling nobody either. His beloved Inter want Conte not him. They know that, as a top manager, he's finished.

Inter going for a juventino when Jose was unemployed should tell you everything. Unless club is desperate he won't end up with big club again.

 

[devilish]

Inter going for a juventino when Jose was unemployed should tell you everything. Unless club is desperate he won't end up with big club again.

I've said it many many times. No serious CEO/owner would ever go for Mourinho. You can't have a manager who expects the club to play Football manager by bringing in a horde of old players only for him to win 2-3 trophies and then feck off to the sunlit uplands leaving behind an utter mess. That's why any half decent DOF had troubles with Mourinho and its also the reason why Mou's career was basically hopping from one poorly managed club to another. Roman, Woodward, Perez and Moratti are possibly the worst CEO/Owners we've had in the past 2 decades or so.

 

[Bobcat]

Spend the 2nd highest budget. Finish 2nd. 19 points off the 1st . Great achievement Mourinho!!

We've spent a lot yes, the problem is that we have spent incredibly poorly under the last three managers, so much so, that almost the entire squad needs to be gutted and replaced if we are going to hope for anything better

 

[MacabbiUnited]

Agendas, agendas everywhere. Jose could say water was wet and there would be an uprising against that opinion. He’s been gone for a long time now and still people refuse to admit the issues are far, far deeper than the manager.

The problems are deeper than the manager, but Jose added Jose's problems with his egotistical comments and constantly diminishing the club and the players. You dont throw your players under the bus at press confrences, you dont publicly say that "a lot of Sevilla players would walk right into my team", and you dont belittle your club's history.

But that was the problem with Jose, he never felt it was "his" club. He never spoke about man utd as "Us", in his eyes Jose and Man Utd were 2 seperate entities.

 

[Slevs]

Some people hate this guy to the point of blindness.

If you think that the club is fine and our terrible season is all down to Mourinho, then you really need to take a step back and re-assess everything.

Not saying the guy was faultless, he could have done much better, but there's a virus in this club and we still haven't removed it.

 

[red thru&thru]

I'd love for him to tell us all what was the real problem. Most of us know but a lot are still in denial.

 

[devilish]

Some people hate this guy to the point of blindness.

If you think that the club is fine and our terrible season is all down to Mourinho, then you really need to take a step back and re-assess everything.

Not saying the guy was faultless, he could have done much better, but there's a virus in this club and we still haven't removed it.

Our problems are way bigger then Mourinho. I actually think that Mourinho's appointment is a consequence of our main problem which is a board of directors who have absolutely no idea of football. There's no denying though that Mourinho came in here, he spent 400m and there's barely anything to show for it. He also kept United back by being against the very thing we need ie a DOF.

 

[tenpoless]

Why is He comparing Martial with Benzema though? the feck.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

Don’t know why he’s ‘spot on’. He was cryptic and vague.

 

[Reddy Rederson]

The problems are deeper than the manager, but Jose added Jose's problems with his egotistical comments and constantly diminishing the club and the players. You dont throw your players under the bus at press confrences, you dont publicly say that "a lot of Sevilla players would walk right into my team", and you dont belittle your club's history.

But that was the problem with Jose, he never felt it was "his" club. He never spoke about man utd as "Us", in his eyes Jose and Man Utd were 2 seperate entities.

You do when the club is run like shit. You do when the players aren’t giving their all. We don’t know what he tried behind closed doors. At some point, you have to say feck it, and call the players out for being shit. We all see it, and I’d rather a manager be honest. “We tried, we have to do better” is cliched nonsense that’s supposed to absolve players of not trying hard enough.

Jose wasn’t perfect, and I think you’ll find it hard finding anyone who says otherwise. But if it’s not clear by now that he wasn’t the issue with this club I honestly don’t know what it’s gonna take to open peoples eyes. His comments about being head coach and not a manger tells me that he was being undermined by someone. Was it woody, or the glazers? Both? Supposedly Joel likes martial, so he’s untouchable. How is Jose, or now ole supposed to get him to work hard they have no power over him? Why did Jose not know what to do with mkhitaryan or fred? Was he really buying players? Far too many questions.

All I know for sure is that these players were shit, then they weren’t, now they are again. It’s clearly not a Jose issue. It’s a club issue. And it seems that no matter who the manager is, if we can’t sort out the club we are fecked. Ole will be the next scape goat come Christmas time. And then whoever after that, and after that. Winter is coming will be uniteds new tag line soon.

 

[Thiagoal]

I thought Mourinho signed Pogba... must be wrong!!

 

[roonster09]

I've said it many many times. No serious CEO/owner would ever go for Mourinho. You can't have a manager who expects the club to play Football manager by bringing in a horde of old players only for him to win 2-3 trophies and then feck off to the sunlit uplands leaving behind an utter mess. That's why any half decent DOF had troubles with Mourinho and its also the reason why Mou's career was basically hopping from one poorly managed club to another. Roman, Woodward, Perez and Moratti are possibly the worst CEO/Owners we've had in the past 2 decades or so.

I thought Van Gaal was the worst thing to happen for the club as he damaged the club more than Moyes but I was wrong. No one took the club backwards like Jose. At least with Van Gaal there was clear plan that we were working on, it's just that he signed poor players to implement that. With Jose there was nothing. Just sign players for the sake of it, no idea how to use them and then throw them under the bus and start moaning about more money.

 

[Kapardin]

Don’t know why he’s ‘spot on’. He was cryptic and vague.

He blamed the ambition, players and organization for our troubles which was right. Despite using roundabout words, he good as implied that our win against PSG was a fluke and that over time, Ole's winning run wasn't sustainable -- he actually mentioned this directly once earlier even when we were winning, but that was met with a lot of green smileys and smirks here on this form.

I would say all this is spot on. Note that I wanted Jose sacked, but that doesn't mean what he's saying is incorrect. Much like LvG who was also right about our club despite doing a bad job himself. We seem to hire managers who suck at managing but are very good at making assessments about us once they are sacked...

 

[wirriam]

he meant that it was near impossible to achieve anything with this squad with this sort of mentality,hence his comments about greatest achievement.

I still find it embarrassing that a man who's won so many titles continues touting him finishing SECOND is his greatest managerial achievement potentially. A man who won the Champions League with Porto, won a title with a Chelsea side conceding only 15 goals, the treble with Inter, and beating Pep's Barcelona to La Liga.

So to be clear, he's saying this squad. A squad he had massive input on, that finished second, was his biggest achievement? What a loser this guy is.

 

[devilish]

I thought Van Gaal was the worst thing to happen for the club as he damaged the club more than Moyes but I was wrong. No one took the club backwards like Jose. At least with Van Gaal there was clear plan that we were working on, it's just that he signed poor players to implement that. With Jose there was nothing. Just sign players for the sake of it, no idea how to use them and then throw them under the bus and start moaning about more money.

Louis simply didn't understood the EPL. At one point he said that himself as he struggled to understand how smaller sides were just happy to lose all ball possession and get hammered in their box just to earn 1 point. However his heart was in the right place. This guy is a proper manager who tries to leave a legacy behind. He built Ajax star studded team, he contributed alot to leave Bayern and Barcelona in a better shape then he found them. Which explains why the latter gave him a second shot. There's no denying that a big chunk of today's most successful football people owes him a great deal in terms of influence (Pep, VDS, Enriquez even Mou)

Mou is different. Clubs signed him because they wanted instant success with no care of what tomorrow will bring. Take his signings (wanted or signed) as an example. You can't build a dynasty on Ibra, Willian, Perisic, Toby + Raiola's men. The former are too old while the latter will hop to other clubs pretty soon. To make matters worse, football had moved on and Mou is not as effective as he used to be. This means that he expects clubs to spend more money for less success.

 

[SadlerMUFC]

people act as if we had an amazing performance in that game, as if PSG wasn't doing flicks and keep-ups throughout the game and we didn't need a controversial VAR decision to go through. but sure, it was Pogba not being there that made the difference

the only people who thought that VAR decision was controversial are people who don't understand the laws of the game. If they do understand then they would know it was 100% a penalty

 

[EwanI Ted]

It's hard to take his word on anything seriously when he continually absolves himself of all blame.

 

[WensleyMU]

I genuinely pity some of our fans whenever the discussion turns towards Mourinho.

As usual he is right just as he was when he was here. Only the feeble minded, and that includes a number of our players struggle to digest what he says about the issues then, and now.

 

[kouroux]

He is quickly reaching Moyes level of being unbearable to listen to.

 

[AJ10]

They could have asked him why United played Big Sam style football with him. First they were shitting him on now they got him shitting on United but won't ask him questions about his failures, Especially Andy Gray and that idiot who use to butcher him every week.

 

[Kostov]

I still find it embarrassing that a man who's won so many titles continues touting him finishing SECOND is his greatest managerial achievement potentially. A man who won the Champions League with Porto, won a title with a Chelsea side conceding only 15 goals, the treble with Inter, and beating Pep's Barcelona to La Liga.

I mean forget about Mourinho he will always work his own narrative, but what does that say for these absolute frauds of players we have?

 

[TwoSheds]

My belief is that Moyes, LVG, Mourinho, Woodward and the players have all been sh|te in their own ways but I still feel the majority of the buck starts with the manager. A good manager should be able to get the team playing cohesive, progressive and proactive football despite the circumstances off the pitch. Or at least a semblance of it. Obviously that doesn't mean good results and possible even worse than we have 'achieved' these past 6 seasons but that gives something to build on (1 step back, 2 forward blah blah). Some one needs to come with the simplicity and balls saying 'this is the way we play, end of' and actually enforce that. The way I have seen Klopp, Poch, Conte, Emery and Sarri did or have done regardless the immediate outcome.

In their own ways and perhaps even with what we've seen with the current coaching set up, none have shown the charisma, coaching ability or decisiveness to actually take it on and do it.

Until then, my view is that anything that anyone says from our past or current set up will be met with 'you simply didn't do enough on your own part'.

The best example of professionalism and pure concentration is what Poch has done with Spurs this season. He easily could have done a Mourinho/Conte but he bit his tongue and remained fully focused on the task, which is maximise the ability of his 11 football players on the pitch. It totally makes sense why he showed so much emotion after the Ajax game and his subsequent comments pretty much saying 'I've done a f*cking good job, now back me in the summer or forget this happening again/I'm leaving'.

Spurs' squad is full of hard working players who are thoroughly the manager's men though. It's not exactly the same situation.

 

[Robbie Boy]

Shouldn’t have done such a terrible job so Jose.