"Finishing 2nd with this team a great achievement"

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Is it though? I think if we’re honest with our selves we know we aren’t even that. It’s no coincidence that we keep landing around 6th place give or take. Getting 2nd with these players was a miracle. Their hatred for Jose had them playing like title contenders, then that hate ran out and they have went right back to everything he was complaining about. So while they can be a top 4 team, they simply won’t. It’s a collective attitude thing.
Do you think Arsenal and Chelsea have better players than us?
 

Reddy Rederson

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Even so, Mourinho had money ad chose to spend it on these players. I really genuinely cannot understand how anyone can think Mourinho had good reason to complain about the squad. What did he do to improve it? Replace and aging Rooney with Sanchez?
No, he replaced an aging Rooney with Lukaku. I know you don’t want to admit it, but he wasn’t the only issue with this club. You’re gonna have to get on board with the fact that while he was a problem, he’s gone and the issues are still here. It wasn’t just Jose. It’s the players as well. And it’s Woodward. Who saw Sanchez being as shit as he’s been? No one. Not a single person said that was a bad deal at the time. But hindsight let’s us claim Jose made a mistake. And if he wanted him, that has turned out to be a mistake. But he didn’t make the Sanchez deal. Woodward did. He’s the one that keeps giving everyone sky high wages. Remember he did the same thing with Rooney. He was desperate to show that united was still a draw for top players and os gave rooney(who was already shit) a massive wage and he got the captains armband.

It’s Woodward that’s the issue when it comes to money. And he’s going to keep on being that issue. If woody gets his way, he’s replace Sanchez with bale. And he’s gonna be on more money than Sanchez. And if what’s said about him is true, he’ll be on the physios table more than Jones.

Jose is gone. And we still have the same issues. Worse we got rid of the issues and have now reverted back to being shit. Are we to believe that ole is now toxic? Jose had to go, I don’t disagree with that. But he needs to followed out the door by the players who don’t want to do the work and Woodward who can’t run a club worth a feck.
 

hn4manunited

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Of course a team need experienced player, I'm not saying otherwise. My point isn't about Mou shouldn't sign old players, it's about the quality of players he want to sign. Perisic and Willian is about as mediocre and inconsistent as it gets, look at how they play this season. They'll end up as Matic, only good for half a season, turn to shite and then we'll struggle to move them out of the club.

Alderweireld I most certainly agree will improve the team, but Willian and Perisic? Nah
The times I have watched Perisic and Willian play this season, they would easily displace quite a few of our players in the starting lineup.
 

MackRobinson

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Or this should be a copy/paste for all those that continue to insist that jose had anything to do with the money side of the business. Thats all on woodward. And no amount of but, but, but, he was toxic or whatever is going to change the fact that your issue is still an issue as the man responsible for that issue is still here.
I don’t understand how fans are still not seeing this.
So are you telling us Mourinho wasn't happy with the players the club purchased? Before you attempt explain this away I'm just going to leave you with this:

People forgets it was mourinho himself that proudly stated the team was ready to challenge for the league and when he got shown up by City at OT ending the weakest title challenge of history he started backtracking with excuses of spending which continued right until the sacking .

https://www.skysports.com/football/...nited-are-ready-for-a-serious-title-challenge
Straight from the horses mouth:

Jose Mourinho said:
"In many ways, it is my team. In terms of the squad, this is my second transfer window. I was thinking, three transfer windows, I need that. But after two windows I have a good group and a football club much better equipped."
Jose Mourinho said:
"To buy lots of good players is important. Better squads are better equipped to win the title. That is normal, but that is not enough. I think every one of us is equipped to win the title."
At this point, I don't understand what the point of defending him is. He clearly got in wrong in terms of personnel and playing style.

"Well, Woodward shouldn't have signed off on those players" - So you can then argue he didn't back the manager?
"Well, Woodward shouldn't have paid so much" - As if he alone determines what to pay for a player.
"Well, Woodward should have identified better players" - Is he a scout now? Isn't this same guy who gets laughed at for offering 100M for Varane?
 

RedDevil@84

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So are you telling us Mourinho wasn't happy with the players the club purchased? Before you attempt explain this away I'm just going to leave you with thi
If I am not mistaken, the post you quoted seems to be talking about who decides/negotiates the salaries and transfer amounts (money things) and that is not Mourinho or Ole.
 

roonster09

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So are you telling us Mourinho wasn't happy with the players the club purchased? Before you attempt explain this away I'm just going to leave you with this:



Straight from the horses mouth:




At this point, I don't understand what the point of defending him is. He clearly got in wrong in terms of personnel and playing style.

"Well, Woodward shouldn't have signed off on those players" - So you can then argue he didn't back the manager?
"Well, Woodward shouldn't have paid so much" - As if he alone determines what to pay for a player.
"Well, Woodward should have identified better players" - Is he a scout now? Isn't this same guy who gets laughed at for offering 100M for Varane?
Jose is amazing bulshitter. People just blindly believe that.
 

BalanceUnAutreJoint

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Is it though? I think if we’re honest with our selves we know we aren’t even that. It’s no coincidence that we keep landing around 6th place give or take. Getting 2nd with these players was a miracle. Their hatred for Jose had them playing like title contenders, then that hate ran out and they have went right back to everything he was complaining about. So while they can be a top 4 team, they simply won’t. It’s a collective attitude thing.
I mean do you really believe Chelsea and Arsenal have better squad than we do?
I've said Tottenham do for a while, people disagreed but it seems that now they're finally realizing it.
However Chelsea and Arsenal? Chelsea only has one reliable attacker and while he may be the best in the league it doesn't make up for Willian,Pedro,Giroud ..
Their midfield is fine, I prefer ours though.
Defensively we're ahead imo.

Arsenal is a lot closer to call, I still think we have a more balanced squad though
 

RedDevil@84

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Jose is amazing bulshitter. People just blindly believe that.
It is not just Jose, many managers come up with bullshit stuff depending on how things are going. It would be utterly foolish to take the manager's word for it.
Ole said he had an amazing set of players, all of them with excellent attitude and dying for the badge, when we were winning stuff.
Now when we are losing, he says it is a long haul and some of them won't be part of this, which seems to be implying that some players don't have the right attitude.
 

Reddy Rederson

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I mean do you really believe Chelsea and Arsenal have better squad than we do?
I've said Tottenham do for a while, people disagreed but it seems that now they're finally realizing it.
However Chelsea and Arsenal? Chelsea only has one reliable attacker and while he may be the best in the league it doesn't make up for Willian,Pedro,Giroud ..
Their midfield is fine, I prefer ours though.
Defensively we're ahead imo.

Arsenal is a lot closer to call, I still think we have a more balanced squad though
I just don’t see where we are good? I see individuals putting in a shift here and there, but the majority of the time it’s just woeful. It doesn’t matter who great Pogba is if he doesn’t play at 100% every game. And that’s the rub. On paper we might be better, but as a team/squad I don’t think we’re even close to any London team.
 

MackRobinson

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If I am not mistaken, the post you quoted seems to be talking about who decides/negotiates the salaries and transfer amounts (money things) and that is not Mourinho or Ole.
It speaks directly to this point:

"Well, Woodward shouldn't have signed off on those players" - So you can then argue he didn't back the manager?
How many people at the time of the Sanchez deal said "We should not sign him b/c his wage demands are too high and that might hamper our ability to negotiate contracts in the future"? Probably none. Everyone was excited to get a player considered at the time to be one of the best in Premier League (and he was taken under the nose of a rival). The salary negotiation critiques are of no merit. It's just a classic shifting of goal posts.

I get that owners of football clubs are naturally easy scapegoats, but Mourinho has mainly himself to blame.
 

ErranMorad

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I think you should look past the Jose name in posts from your so-called “Jose fellators” because there are objective points in those posts other than Jose is a great manager. You’re in dreamland if you think 81 is our level. It takes a lot more than just sending these average players without a spine to go out there and achieve 81 points.
Jose was a great manager for underdog clubs. Now he is not even that. We should also agree to that.

Jose added 11 players during his time at United. Nine of them starters, one a third choice goalkeeper and one player he called one of the most talented youngster in Europe. He should be the last one bitching about the mediocrity of the squad. A manager's job is to get the best out of the players available, not constantly moan about their quality in every press conference and interview. Our squad is bad for what we have been used to in our United supporting lives and what we expect from a club of our stature. It performed to it's level.

Besides some Jose fans deep innate desire to tell everyone Daddy was right, why does this thread even exist?
 

mdvmia

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The discussion reminds me of Oli Holt's twitter post

"Only Mourinho has the brass balls to say how bad the team he has built really is - and use it as a badge of honour."

Finishing second with that squad may have been a reasonable achievement but that doesn't mean he deserves credit when he was responsible for a lot of the mistakes in building that squad.
 

RochaRoja

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Mourinho averaged 1.62 points per game at United. That’s putting you at sixth place at the end of the season, as close to 7/8/9 as to 3/4/5.

Imagine how much worse that would look if De Gea hadn’t been in incredible form for two of those two and a half years.
 

RooneyLegend

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I see your argument but most posters who think this way are missing the point of a team concept. It takes more than young players to make up a team. Especially the young players at our club now need senior players to show them what hard work is. You can slate willian and Perisic all day about their age but I bet you they will work harder than most of our young players. It is because they have that fight in their DNA. They don’t cower and fold like our young players. Successful teams all have a good mix of older and younger.
Willian plays in a team that most think is a 1 man show. Perisic is far from the solution. He wasted 400, why trust him with more money? the only really quality he brought here was Pogba and that's with 400 million spent. Check what other managers do with those sort of funds and get back to me.
 
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Intilo

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He was right, all his previous team were capable to play better football than us and didnt have to always use big strong forward against inferior team.
 

GazTheLegend

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What!

Lukaku
Alexis

Nemanja Matic
Fred
Paul Pogba

Eric Bailly
Victor Lindelöf
Diogo Dalot

Lee Grant

ENTRIRE FIRST ELEVEN !!!
That’s 400 million worth of players, you freak.

Thats an entirely new defence, two strikers/attackers (having already signed mikhataryan and Zlatan as well, remember)

That’s having sold current CB champions league Semi finalist Daley Blind in favour of keeping Chris Smalling.

That’s our entire centre midfield.

The irony of all this is that our best players are still either Ferguson signings (de Gea), or an academy graduate

Don’t nit pick. Admit it, Jose’s transfers were a disaster
 

dogwithabone

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Jose assembled & led that team for years. Ole is just trying to clear up Jose's mess.

Absolutely. I never quite got the point Mourinho was making with that statement. He assembled the heap of crap and Ole is now lumbered with trying to put it right.
 

roonster09

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No, feck Mourinho, sick of seeing people trying to retcon his failrure here, his attitude was worse than any of the players and the type of players he wanted to bring in were all wrong for United, the 2nd place finish was irrelevant as City were nearly 20 points ahead and we just edged a cluster below them.
Exactly, people moan about players and their attitude but Jose's attitude was the worst in the squad. If the team was full of cnuts,then he is the biggest cnut among them and their leader.
 

jesperjaap

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It was an acheievement. Part of that was signing an inspirational, world class player with motivational and leadership qualities in the dressing toom in Ibrahimovich....notice how rapidly we went downhill again when he had the injury and then left. We need a signing like that again, not age wise but personality w3ise
Think Mourinho had the right idea about some of the current squad......his signings after the first year and supposed targets were all wrong though, so he regressed rather than building on it.
 

Z1L3

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Amazing how many ignorant replies, continuing to blame Jose. He told you so, but you couldn't handle the truth. Deal with it.

 
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Z1L3

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No.

No.

No.

Stop this stupid revisionism.

He spent the same as Klopp and left us languishing without a hope of Champions League football.

"Finishing 2nd with this team a great achievement" - Pathetic in comparison to what Klopp has achieved.

He is as much to blame for where we are as the board who enabled him and the fans who found excuses for him.

Despite Mourinho, we're three points from fourth with three to go.

Excuse me if I'm not behind the petition to get Mourinho knighted for services to second place.

Why are you blaming Ole? Give him a fecking realistic chance and maybe talk about our record away wins, not just the recent losses.
Klopp hasn't won anything yet, and he replaced the entire team that he inherited. Jose won 2 (3) trophies in his first season with more than half of his team on crutches. Facts don't care about your emotions.
 

Hammondo

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There are clearly some lazy players whom are having a negative effect in the changing rooms. We need to get rid of them.
 

WensleyMU

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Of course he was right, but some fans will never admit to it. In the end though, he became toxic.

With only the benefit of hindsight it is true his signings have largely failed, but when purchased, they were highly regarded, equals if not better than their peers at other clubs. Mourinho also had no say on the price, the blame lies elsewhere for that.

There's a problem at United and it goes well beyond any manager. Standards from top to bottom have dropped massively, things happen that would not have been acceptable less than a decade ago. Many fans look for someone to blame, often incapable of seeing beyond the manager, or a manager. Before Mourinho it was van Gaal, before van Gaal it was Moyes. It's a simplistic view lacking in any credibility once the same issues arise later.

United are a joke right now, there's no other way of putting it. There's a whole host of people partly responsible for this and they want you to blame Jose Mourinho, or the next manager, or the next. Some fans keep falling into this trap...
 

B20

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Klopp hasn't won anything yet, and he replaced the entire team that he inherited.
Gomez, Hendo, Milner, Firmino are still regulars.

Sturridge, origi, Lallana, Lovren, moreno, Clyne, Mignolet all still at the club.

You'll need a bigger clear out than we did I reckon.
 

roonster09

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Malaga coach Manuel Pellegrini recently pointed out that he was satisfied with his league record when in charge at Real Madrid last season, but current Blancos coach Jose Mourinho isn't too impressed with the Chilean's second place finish in 2009-10.

"In my philosophy, finishing second just makes you the best loser. Pellegrini partially told the truth when he said that Madrid did pretty good last year," said Mourinho during today's press conference ahead of Thursday's home game against Malaga.
Jose Mourinho on Grant when he finished 2nd and made CL finals.
'After two titles per season for the last three years there were zero titles this season, which in my philosophy means a really bad season. Maybe in the philosophy of a loser this was a great season, which I respect.
When Madrid played against Malaga (team managed by ex Madrid coach Pellegrini)
"Second place is just the first loser,"
This guy is a serial bullshitter, somehow he has so many worshipers who believes everything he says, no matter how he twists everything or how much he lies about history by rewriting them.
 

spiriticon

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Everyone keeps saying 'Jose is gone, but we still have the same team issues'

Yes we do. Not a big surprise considering its still the same team. Which Jose built, ironically.

But you know what is gone forever?

Jose issues.

Hallelujah.
 

WensleyMU

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Everyone keeps saying 'Jose is gone, but we still have the same team issues'

Yes we do. Not a big surprise considering its still the same team. Which Jose built, ironically.

But you know what is gone forever?

Jose issues.

Hallelujah.
That would make some sense... Of the issues didn't exist before, during and after Jose was here...

A point some United fans keep missing...
 

spiriticon

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That would make some sense... Of the issues didn't exist before, during and after Jose was here...

A point some United fans keep missing...
If the issues existed before and after him, then Jose has failed as a manager in sorting it out.

Why are we celebrating him for doing nothing?
 

hocane

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Finishing 2nd with this team is pretty incredible.

Not going to compare it to his past glories, but finishing 2nd with this lot is pretty damn impressive.
 

Keeps It tidy

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Jose Mourinho on Grant when he finished 2nd and made CL finals.


When Madrid played against Malaga (team managed by ex Madrid coach Pellegrini)


This guy is a serial bullshitter, somehow he has so many worshipers who believes everything he says, no matter how he twists everything or how much he lies about history by rewriting them.
And Mourinho about Benitez's Europa League win with Chelsea

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/23330815

Chelsea won Europe's second-tier club competition last season after failing to defend their Champions League title.
But Blues boss Mourinho told BBC Sport: "I don't want to win the Europa League.
"It would be a big disappointment for me. I don't want my players to feel the Europa League is our competition.
Also

http://www.espn.com/soccer/club/man...ourinho-on-the-europa-league-in-his-own-words

"When I returned, I felt the experience of Chelsea playing Europa League was not good. The Europa League is a different competition [to the Champions League], the Europa League is a different level of competition for a different level of player and a different level of club. It is not good for a big club to go there and win it. It is better for the evolution of the players and for the evolution of the team to be in the Champions League."
 

WensleyMU

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If the issues existed before and after him, then Jose has failed as a manager in sorting it out.

Why are we celebrating him for doing nothing?
Nobody is celebrating anything, merely pointing out he was right. Mourinho still gave us our best seasons post Fergie, even if those were below ours, and his own standards.