Jose Mourinho | 2017/18 Assessments | Poll Added

[Jeffthered]

Jose is getting exposed. No doubt we will go on a little run, win a few, draw a few, not lose and probably remain in the top four. He will say that is progress. And many accept this, which is in some ways sad.

But Mourinho knows, and I think many, many know... this just isn't quite right. There are questions marks on all of these matters:

1. Our approach to certain games, especially against quality opponents
2. The lack of tempo in our game. It's outdated, and doesn't reflect or respond to the methods and approaches by most opposing teams.
3. Our lack of cohesion. What is the 'Man Utd' attacking strategy?
4. The lack of leadership.
5. Assessing the true quality and potential of a number of our players
6. The reliance on the form and performance of Pogba
7. How Mourinho feels about managing United. I think it's a little much for him, because the pressure is great. Look at his treatment of Fellani last night. Shocking.

Mourinho said the second goal 'killed the confidence of the team'. This is the most worrying statement, because there was over an hour to play after the second goal. This is NOT a Manchester United FC mentality. I saw this at Real Madrid, and Chelsea. I don't want to panic, but there is a feeling here, that things are more fragile in and around the team than we realise.

What does Mourinho stand for now? Team unity? Great tactician? Great football? I'm no longer sure, and I don't think he is.

 

[royboy16]

Jose is getting exposed. No doubt we will go on a little run, win a few, draw a few, not lose and probably remain in the top four. He will say that is progress. And many accept this, which is in some ways sad.

But Mourinho knows, and I think many, many know... this just isn't quite right. There are questions marks on all of these matters:

1. Our approach to certain games, especially against quality opponents
2. The lack of tempo in our game. It's outdated, and doesn't reflect or respond to the methods and approaches by most opposing teams.
3. Our lack of cohesion. What is the 'Man Utd' attacking strategy?
4. The lack of leadership.
5. Assessing the true quality and potential of a number of our players
6. The reliance on the form and performance of Pogba
7. How Mourinho feels about managing United. I think it's a little much for him, because the pressure is great. Look at his treatment of Fellani last night. Shocking.

Mourinho said the second goal 'killed the confidence of the team'. This is the most worrying statement, because there was over an hour to play after the second goal. This is NOT a Manchester United FC mentality. I saw this at Real Madrid, and Chelsea. I don't want to panic, but there is a feeling here, that things are more fragile in and around the team than we realise.

What does Mourinho stand for now? Team unity? Great tactician? Great football? I'm no longer sure, and I don't think he is.

He's injured.

 

[Jeffthered]

Really? he got injured in those seven minutes? Or was injured before he came on?

Fellani walked straight down the tunnel after that substitution. It all looked incredibly ugly.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

Performance like that has been looming for a while as the performance level dropped again after 2 good games. Jose got it wrong as most felt we needed 3 in midfield and either Herrera or Fellaini were needed to be competitive in midfield. In the end Pochetinho out smarted him with his tactics and the way he used Erickson, Son and Alli to break us apart.

 

[Kapardin]

Jose was at fault for picking that formation (3-4-1-2 with Lindelof would have been better), but those 2 goals were easily avoidable if Jones didn't decide to go rogue on us.

But yes, his tactical nous in big away games needs to improve. That being said, we never seem to win against Chelsea and Spurs away regardless of our squad or manager these past few years. Two major bogey fixtures in our calender.

 

[DelPotro]

My problem with him is he didn't learn from his mistakes.

We played a really attacking team against City and we were overrun in the midfield. He also started Martial on the right and had to switch him back to the left because he was ineffective in the first half.

Yesterday he played a even more attacking lineup and Martial was once again started on the right side. Shaw was also dropped after a series of good performances.

In big games we should always play 433 with Herrera/Fellaini as the extra midfielder. It doesn't take a tactical genius to figure that out. Lukaku should also be dropped in these kind of games now that we have Sanchez.

Martial-Sanchez-Lingard
Pogba-Matic-Herrera
Shaw-Jones-Smalling-Valencia

This is the team we should have started yesterday. Unfortunately Jose will never drop his golden boy Lukaku. Maybe all the talk about him parking the bus is getting to him so he decides to do the complete opposite.

 

[Fredo]

Really? he got injured in those seven minutes? Or was injured before he came on?

Fellani walked straight down the tunnel after that substitution. It all looked incredibly ugly.

Below is a link showing Fellaini picking up his injury:

http://metro.co.uk/2018/01/31/real-...-manchester-uniteds-defeat-tottenham-7277424/

Watch the vid, he challenges a spurs player and starts hobbling after it.


Back to topic, yesterday was a bad day at the office, to concede in 11 seconds was just unreal in an away game to a tough opponent who has a very very good team.

We tried to pick ourselves up, then we scored an own goal, we were presented with a few chances and we did not take them.

Mourinho shouldn't have put Martial on the right when most of the games he played in were on the left. We went gung-ho with overconfidence clearly showing and we ended up losing the game by making horrendous mistakes at the back.

For big games against top sides, we are always doing the dumb thing of playing 2 in the middle, this has been mentioned hundreds of times yet we still do it, I don't understand why.

Herrera should have started no question about that next to Matic and Pogba. You can't play against Dembele, Eriksen and Alli with Pogba (who can't defend properly) and Matic who lacks pace. Eriksen and Alli roamed forward and tracked back properly and Dembele was constantly breaking up play.

Our tactics weren't good by any means, the fact that most Spurs defenders were able to carry the ball from their area right to the middle of the pitch with us offering 0 pressure or marking was hideous.

Jose needs to show the players how to deal with going 1 goal down against top sides. Everytime we concede panic mode is on and we start playing like idiots.

Captaincy should also be looked at as Valencia despite all the love and appreciation I have for him isn't captain material. We need someone who is right in the middle of it, with a strong enough character to rally the players and shout at them when they are not doing their defensive duties.

Losing the ball and not tracking back should be addressed by Jose, we have been doing this quite a lot, we cannot rely on Matic being everywhere to get us the ball back, this shit needs to be sorted.

 

[Adebesi]

I wonder if Mourinho is struggling with "The United Way". He came with a good track record, mainly playing a certain way. We asked him to replicate the success but to do it playing differently. We're certainly playing differently, we don't look much like a Mourinho team at the best of times. But we don't look like our old selves either, not against half decent teams anyway. We're neither one thing nor the other. Just flat track bullies.

Our record against decent teams is shocking. It reminds me of something Mourinho said about Wenger, I can't be bothered to look it up but basically their head to head record was so bad for Wenger, if he had such a record he'd be so ashamed he would quit. Certainly not calling for Mourinho to take his own advice, but his record against top 6 is getting into that kind of territory. He absolutely needs to sort it out as a top priority. Regardless of where we finish (2-4 or lower) being unable to beat quality opposition isn't acceptable.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

I wonder if Mourinho is struggling with "The United Way". He came with a good track record, mainly playing a certain way. We asked him to replicate the success but to do it playing differently. We're certainly playing differently, we don't look much like a Mourinho team at the best of times. But we don't look like our old selves either, not against half decent teams anyway. We're neither one thing nor the other. Just flat track bullies.

Our record against decent teams is shocking. It reminds me of something Mourinho said about Wenger, I can't be bothered to look it up but basically their head to head record was so bad for Wenger, if he had such a record he'd be so ashamed he would quit. Certainly not calling for Mourinho to take his own advice, but his record against top 6 is getting into that kind of territory. He absolutely needs to sort it out as a top priority. Regardless of where we finish (2-4 or lower) being unable to beat quality opposition isn't acceptable.

Well he'll certainly need to improve on last season's record but his record in big games so far this season isn't terrible. Beat Spurs at home, beat Arsenal away, drew with Liverpool away (which even City couldn't manage) then lost to Spurs and Chelsea on the road and City (narrowly) at home. If we can beat Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool at Old Trafford and avoide defeat at the Etihad (which is definitely possible) then he can point to an acceptable (and improving, year on year) record in these big games.

 

[Adebesi]

Well he'll certainly need to improve on last season's record but his record in big games so far this season isn't terrible. Beat Spurs at home, beat Arsenal away, drew with Liverpool away (which even City couldn't manage) then lost to Spurs and Chelsea on the road and City (narrowly) at home. If we can beat Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool at Old Trafford and avoide defeat at the Etihad (which is definitely possible) then he can point to an acceptable (and improving, year on year) record in these big games.

Fair point, a few of those respectable results - like the recent draw against Liverpool - entailed really depressing performances, which maybe skews it a bit in my mind.

I also dont think our loss against City was particularly narrow, we had chances and could have got something out of the game but they really were a lot better than us on the day.

I dont have much confidence going into big games - especially not in the league. That's the thing. We'll see how we do in coming months. I dont know what to expect against Sevilla. I actually think we'll play much better in that game for some reason.

 

[TheFlagStaysDown]

I wonder why we dont try to play Herrera - Pogba midfield again. Everyone fell in love with Matic like with every new player and he had a great start to his United career and no wonder, after a preseason, the whole team played really well and would always had a great start against the teams from the bottom of the table. He just cemented his place and Herrera lost his confidence because of that because no matter how hard he tried in his previous season he was still replaced with someone bigger... and Matic - Pogba worked for a while but has it ever worked against a top team? You know the answer.

Matic even though he has a good positioning sense, is strong on the ball and has a good pass on him, can tackle better than Carrick he doesn't add even an inch of mobility over Carrick who was also outrun so many times. Now I am not saying Matic is our problem he's not, because he could still be a great player but he would need someone alongside him to do the running and Pogba is not the one, so the answer would be to play midfield three or try to get some more dynamic midifielder instead.

And looking at those big games we played this year with Matic-Pogba, we were always always dominated, the extreme luck at Emirates can change your view of this but had DDG not have his best game ever we could have lost with a big margin. Looking at the big games we played last year with Herrera, we played better as a team. And Matic himself wasnt anything special since his first few weeks basically that kind of form for which Chelsea fans were not missing him I'd say..

That would be just one suggestion to confused and stubborn Mourinho but what the hell did he do with our attacking front four? It make sense not to shuffle around the players when they look good in their positions. Leave Martial on the right, Jesse in the middle and Sanchez on the right, change it if it doesnt work.. SHambles form Mourinho because it was an absolutely winnable game with a decent tactic and games like this will come under him again but should I be happy we can beat Huddersfield and be dominated by every decent team and sometimes win and sometimes lose?

And some people wanted more years extension for Mourinho and he cant even motivate his team to fight back, what kind of manager is he? His aura and past achievements backs him when things are not going his way but he really should be doing better...

EDIT: We even lost to HUddersfield

 

[LeftyBlaster]

His tactics are being exposed here imho. He isn't getting the best out of this team by a mile. If we gave this squad to Pep / Poch they would play far better.

 

[Cliche Guevara]

I read something recently (in relation to Scottish youth development) that in the last fifteen years footballers now cover twice as much ground as they did before.

This roughly coincides with Jose’s career. I wonder if the game has slowly caught up with and overtaken him without him realising?

I honestly don’t know but I’d be interested to see a comparison between the distances covered by us and, especially, the other big sides.

Clearly there is still work to be done until he’s built the side he really wants, so next season will probably give us a clearer picture of where he’s at. He definitely plays a markedly different style of football to what is currently fashionable and, you have to say, largely successful.

 

[Thisistheone]

I read something recently (in relation to Scottish youth development) that in the last fifteen years footballers now cover twice as much ground as they did before.

This roughly coincides with Jose’s career. I wonder if the game has slowly caught up with and overtaken him without him realising?

I honestly don’t know but I’d be interested to see a comparison between the distances covered by us and, especially, the other big sides.

Clearly there is still work to be done until he’s built the side he really wants, so next season will probably give us a clearer picture of where he’s at. He definitely plays a markedly different style of football to what is currently fashionable and, you have to say, largely successful.

Read something along those lines from Jonathan Wilson a couple of months back. He alluded to the possibilty that Mourinho, like a lot of managers in history, fail to keep up with the times.

I don't know if it's true but one thing we can all agree on is Jose is still one of the top managers around, just not the 'special one' anymore.

We got away with it at Arsenal, they could have battered us that night. The tactics were wrong.

Same again last night in a big away game. On top of that (tactical) there was a frightening lack of fight and desire. (Motivational) Or so it seemed from our lads compared to the Spurs boys.

One instance sticks in my mind, Smalling was 5 yards away from the ball, turned in slow motion and jogged to it, while Dele Alli sprinted 20 yards and got there first.

 

[Adisa]

Criticised him heavily after recent big games...not today.
I thought he got his tactics spot on.
We played really well between the first and second goal and imo, Spurs were really struggling to stop us getting into good positions until Jones did his thing.
We played badly in the second half but I'm not sure what he could have done. We needed a break as Spurs were in control and could play how they liked.

 

[Thisistheone]

Criticised him heavily after recent big games...not today.
I thought he got his tactics spot on.
We played really well between the first and second goal and imo, Spurs were really struggling to stop us getting into good positions until Jones did his thing.
We played badly in the second half but I'm not sure what he could have done. We needed a break as Spurs were in control and could play how they liked.

I didn't see it like that. Thought they had a ridiculous amount of space between our back 4 and midfield plus the room Trippier had on the right was criminal. It felt like we had no midfield. Just a very deep, slow Matic and then an acre of space where Pogba was and the 4 forwards.

 

[Di Maria's angel]

Criticised him heavily after recent big games...not today.
I thought he got his tactics spot on.
We played really well between the first and second goal and imo, Spurs were really struggling to stop us getting into good positions until Jones did his thing.
We played badly in the second half but I'm not sure what he could have done. We needed a break as Spurs were in control and could play how they liked.

Careful with what you say.

I do agree to some extent, we really looked like scoring after they did till Phil decided to help Spurs out. My gripe with Mourinho would be refusing to change the system after we went 2-0 down. Should have taken off an attacker for Herrera and pushed Pogba up the field.

 

[Romez]

Criticised him heavily after recent big games...not today.
I thought he got his tactics spot on.
We played really well between the first and second goal and imo, Spurs were really struggling to stop us getting into good positions until Jones did his thing.
We played badly in the second half but I'm not sure what he could have done. We needed a break as Spurs were in control and could play how they liked.

How can you say he got his tactics spot on?

Spurs were playing through our midfield with ease all game and he didn’t do anything to stop it.

It was obvious we needed another body in midfield yet he takes Pogba off for Fellaini.

Also playing Martial on the right and Young at LB was a mistake.

 

[FlawlessThaw]

Careful with what you say.

I do agree to some extent, we really looked like scoring after they did till Phil decided to help Spurs out. My gripe with Mourinho would be refusing to change the system after we went 2-0 down. Should have taken off an attacker for Herrera and pushed Pogba up the field.

Agree with this completely. Could actually have been 2-1 up with a bit of luck after 10 minutes.

This team has a weak mentality though, literally no fight in the second half or after Jones scored the own goal and we were losing every 50-50.

 

[Di Maria's angel]

I didn't see it like that. Thought they had a ridiculous amount of space between our back 4 and midfield plus the room Trippier had on the right was criminal. It felt like we had no midfield. Just a very deep, slow Matic and then an acre of space where Pogba was and the 4 forwards.

I think between the first 1st and 20th minute, we were on top and should have scored. We also had a period of about 10-15 minutes in the 2nd half where we had 70% possession. They dominated for most parts, though and we didn't do enough.

 

[Di Maria's angel]

Agree with this completely. Could actually have been 2-1 up with a bit of luck after 10 minutes.

This team has a weak mentality though, literally no fight in the second half or after Jones scored the own goal and we were losing every 50-50.

We lack a leader. We're going to miss Carrick, a lot. Is there a player on the field confident enough to have a go at Pogba or even have a quiet word with Martial when things aren't going their ways? No one really commands that respect or seems experienced enough to feel comfortable to take the mantle. These are the days where I miss Fergie . I honestly have no idea how he got us to react so well after being down 2-0 or 3-0 in certain games - what a man!

 

[Adisa]

How can you say he got his tactics spot on?

Spurs were playing through our midfield with ease all game and he didn’t do anything to stop it.

It was obvious we needed another body in midfield yet he takes Pogba off for Fellaini.

Also playing Martial on the right and Young at LB was a mistake.

Don't know about this.
I saw Martial on the left quite a lot in the first half.
The three behind Lukaku kept rotating...I don't see a problem with that.
On Young, I agree.
After the first goal, I thought we played well and looked like scoring on a number of occasions.

 

[Canagel]

I was very disappointed with last nights defeat because we've seen the same performances numerous times with Mourinho away from home against the big sides. Just look at our record. I was confident and optimistic going into the game and the feel-good factor I've had this week is gone. Another big game game goes by and once more we don't perform. The lack of effort is what I can't accept. The way we downed tools was unforgivable and unacceptable from a United team. Even at 2-0 down I was still relaxed because I knew we had enough quality to get back into it but Mourinho seemed to imply that the team had mentally given up after the 2nd goal. Where's the never say die attitude and fight this club is famous for? We can lose games and we lost games under Fergie too but Fergie's sides would never have gone down like we did last night. They would've gone down fighting. Its happened a few times now this season already. Those players need to understand what it means to play for United and stop feeling sorry for themselves. We have a weak mentality and that's going to stop us from winning trophies in the future.

 

[Tom Van Persie]

Really? he got injured in those seven minutes? Or was injured before he came on?

Fellani walked straight down the tunnel after that substitution. It all looked incredibly ugly.

He just came back from a ligament injury and Mourinho said he was having problems with it again last night when he came on. Fellaini was understandably frustrated about it.

 

[Foxbatt]

I also agree to a certain extent about the United Way. Jose should have parked the bus and flooded the midfield but the hate he got for doing that at Liverpool and getting a point there may have caused him to play too many attacking formations.
The other issue is that a lot of player like Smalling, Jones, Young, Valencia do not have a footballing brain. They do not know how to take advantage of a situation. The same with Bailly too. Kane was already running in our half when the whistle blew and not one of our players saw it fit to create a scene and point it out to the referee. None. For teams who park the bus against us, he can play a two man midfield but for others he needs to stop getting our midfield overrun.
I never felt that Lukaku is good enough to play for a top team leading the line. And as many have said it seems that Jose lets them play as they want to in an attacking sense. He needs to get rid of Rui Faria and get a better assistant.

 

[Data]

We lack a leader. We're going to miss Carrick, a lot. Is there a player on the field confident enough to have a go at Pogba or even have a quiet word with Martial when things aren't going their ways? No one really commands that respect or seems experienced enough to feel comfortable to take the mantle. These are the days where I miss Fergie . I honestly have no idea how he got us to react so well after being down 2-0 or 3-0 in certain games - what a man!

My fear is that we keep looking for leaders, midfielders, full backs, etc...
our current crop of players, albeit below par in some department, should be able to bring the game to the like of Spurs..
Common guys, we are not playg the PSG, Barca n Bayern are we ?

 

[Di Maria's angel]

My fear is that we keep looking for leaders, midfielders, full backs, etc...
our current crop of players, albeit below par in some department, should be able to bring the game to the like of Spurs..
Common guys, we are not playg the PSG, Barca n Bayern are we ?

Criminally underrating Spurs. They're a very, very good side. Heck, they smashed Real, Liverpool and Dortmund. They're not a given as they would have been 10 years ago.

 

[shield]

If I have to be honest, he does seem to be struggling with us. I don't see any hint of confidence from the way he is behaving and the way he is conducting his interviews.

Pogba in mid 2 or 3 ?? No clear idea.
Martial left or right or middle ?? No clear idea.
Mkhi was supposed to be right wing or middle ?? Was not clear.
What is his plan for Sanchez? Did he just go for him because he was available? Yesterday he was used everywhere, right, left, AM, CM, striker???
Backline - Is Smalling surplus? Or is Rojo surplus? Whom does he prefer? Where will Lindelof play? Does he need him? Why is he still not being used consistently after half the season is over (I mean, he did pay good money for him )?
Fullback - Does he trust Shaw? He went public about his attitude and stuff, then back tracked after some decent performances by Shaw. Does he seriously plan on sticking with Young?

Like yesterday, he put in Fellaini and the subsituted him and then got Herrera who played very well. So, umm.., he must have seen it in training that Herrera is playing well and Fellaini is struggling a bit because of his injury. Looked like he just took Fellaini's word for it (sounds funny but it really looked like this). He did play Young over Shaw, which I am assuming was because of these injury concerns.

It has been 1 and half year and these observations are quite clear:
- We get absolutely torn apart by any remotely decent team, or any team putting up a fight.
- Anytime we concede, we start looking lost and start panicking, rushing crosses and keep hoping for a equalizer. If we are two or more goals down, we just give up.
- We hate teams pressing us and players start looking desperate when ever they have to make passes, keep the ball or move the ball around.
- We look super confident if we have not conceded, or are a goal up, and have to just defend and keep the opposition out.

This is an impartial judgment. Not just because we just lost a match. We hardly even put up a fight yesterday and all I was expecting is for us to put up some sort of resistance.

I really want him to figure this out and get us ticking, but as of now, he appears quite clueless and it shows in these big matches where the opposition are on top of us.

 

[Ace of Spades]

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[Yagami]

Criminally underrating Spurs. They're a very, very good side. Heck, they smashed Real, Liverpool and Dortmund. They're not a given as they would have been 10 years ago.

Saying we should be giving them a game isn't underrating them.

 

[Adebesi]

If I have to be honest, he does seem to be struggling with us. I don't see any hint of confidence from the way he is behaving and the way he is conducting his interviews.

Pogba in mid 2 or 3 ?? No clear idea.
Martial left or right or middle ?? No clear idea.
Mkhi was supposed to be right wing or middle ?? Was not clear.
What is his plan for Sanchez? Did he just go for him because he was available? Yesterday he was used everywhere, right, left, AM, CM, striker???
Backline - Is Smalling surplus? Or is Rojo surplus? Whom does he prefer? Where will Lindelof play? Does he need him? Why is he still not being used consistently after half the season is over (I mean, he did pay good money for him )?
Fullback - Does he trust Shaw? He went public about his attitude and stuff, then back tracked after some decent performances by Shaw. Does he seriously plan on sticking with Young?

Like yesterday, he put in Fellaini and the subsituted him and then got Herrera who played very well. So, umm.., he must have seen it in training that Herrera is playing well and Fellaini is struggling a bit because of his injury. Looked like he just took Fellaini's word for it (sounds funny but it really looked like this). He did play Young over Shaw, which I am assuming was because of these injury concerns.

It has been 1 and half year and these observations are quite clear:
- We get absolutely torn apart by any remotely decent team, or any team putting up a fight.
- Anytime we concede, we start looking lost and start panicking, rushing crosses and keep hoping for a equalizer. If we are two or more goals down, we just give up.
- We hate teams pressing us and players start looking desperate when ever they have to make passes, keep the ball or move the ball around.
- We look super confident if we have not conceded, or are a goal up, and have to just defend and keep the opposition out.

This is an impartial judgment. Not just because we just lost a match. We hardly even put up a fight yesterday and all I was expecting is for us to put up some sort of resistance.

I really want him to figure this out and get us ticking, but as of now, he appears quite clueless and it shows in these big matches where the opposition are on top of us.

Some of these criticisms seem a little unfair to me. Martial has been settled on the left, then we bought Sanchez, who has been playing on the left recently. So clearly there is a bit of an issue there and there is likely to be a bit of trial and error in terms of how we accommodate them both. That strikes me as forgivable and deals with two of your points at once.

And the CBs, I think the thing there is that Smalling and Jones have been playing really well together for a while. It strikes me as being pretty reasonable, in such circumstances, to leave the partnership alone. That doesnt make Rojo or Lindelof surplus, you need back up defenders, we must know that better than any club. Theyll get their chances.

On the Shaw thing, I am not so sure that is based on injury, I think he prefers Young and I think that is a shame. Not that I am singling out Young for criticisms or saying Shaw would have made a huge difference, but Id have played Shaw and I hope Mourinho starts to back up his complimentary words with more selections.

Clearly there are bigger issues at play, and Mourinho hasnt figured out how best to put all his pieces together yet, that much is clear. As I said earlier, I still think he's a bit caught between his natural instinct to play one way, and pressure or explicit instruction he has had to play another as our manager. I think he is still working out how to adapt his own style of management to suit the demands of our club.

 

[Di Maria's angel]

Saying we should be giving them a game isn't underrating them.

Yeah, fair enough. I read it as we should easily beat them.

 

[Yagami]

Yeah, fair enough. I read it as we should easily beat them.

I'd have agreed with you in that case, too! In any case, the result isn't the end of the world because we all know how good they are. Just, the performance in a big game again...

He's signed a new contract now so he's here for the time being. I can only hope he proves me wrong and adjusts.

 

[haram]

Literally every team below us has problems with play style and have games where they look clueless. Spurs just drew to Newport. Liverpool lost to Swansea and West Brom back to back. Chelsea got beat 3-0 at home by fecking Bournemouth. Arsenal are a joke.

People forget we beat Spurs at OT. Jose made some mistakes yesterday but its bollocks that other managers would just do better than him.

Spurs attack and defence is as good as ours. We made a tactical error in midfield by playing just 2 CM’s. It’s funny people keep bringing up Poch like his away record is supposed to be good.

 

[Noir]

Whatever he had in mind vs Spurs could clearly be seen up until the second goal. And it could've worked, we were right in their face and then again a brain fart and we concede a stupid goal like that. Both goals were the teams fault, how can anybody think that a manager that clearly prepared the team for exactly that is at fault is beyond me. After the second goal the team clearly just shut up shop and we went into somekind of damage control, prolly the team was afraid of being battered like vs Chelsea, and as the overpaid pussies they are nobody looked like they wanted to play anymore bar Martial and Sanchez. Then all hell broke lose, we were losing every ball and the ref didn't help with his decisions, Alexis was battered, cleary targeted by Spurs, especially by Kane, and we let them. I wonder why didn't any of our players protect him as in kick the living daylight out of him like Keane would. Matic should've set that record straight with Kane.

Only one who gave a s*** was Alexis, running up and down, yelling at others to help press etc.. And some of you say Mourinho clearly doesn't know what he wants to do with him. He bought him for his footballing ability definetly, but also for his never say die attitude that is lacking across the board in the first IX.

And even then the manager cleary wanted to set up in an attacking manner, away from home, vs one of the top 6 clubs. You wanted the "United way" you would've gotten the "United way" and still some of you aren't satisfied.

Ask the team why they clearly failed to execute the managers demands (see first goal), Pogba for not understanding Mourinhos instructions, Jones for being paranoid, Smalling for being Chris instead of Mike etc.. I hope he made them walk all the way to Manchester.

 

[manunited1919]

Below is a link showing Fellaini picking up his injury:

http://metro.co.uk/2018/01/31/real-...-manchester-uniteds-defeat-tottenham-7277424/

Watch the vid, he challenges a spurs player and starts hobbling after it.


Back to topic, yesterday was a bad day at the office, to concede in 11 seconds was just unreal in an away game to a tough opponent who has a very very good team.

We tried to pick ourselves up, then we scored an own goal, we were presented with a few chances and we did not take them.

Mourinho shouldn't have put Martial on the right when most of the games he played in were on the left. We went gung-ho with overconfidence clearly showing and we ended up losing the game by making horrendous mistakes at the back.

For big games against top sides, we are always doing the dumb thing of playing 2 in the middle, this has been mentioned hundreds of times yet we still do it, I don't understand why.

Herrera should have started no question about that next to Matic and Pogba. You can't play against Dembele, Eriksen and Alli with Pogba (who can't defend properly) and Matic who lacks pace. Eriksen and Alli roamed forward and tracked back properly and Dembele was constantly breaking up play.

Our tactics weren't good by any means, the fact that most Spurs defenders were able to carry the ball from their area right to the middle of the pitch with us offering 0 pressure or marking was hideous.

Jose needs to show the players how to deal with going 1 goal down against top sides. Everytime we concede panic mode is on and we start playing like idiots.

Captaincy should also be looked at as Valencia despite all the love and appreciation I have for him isn't captain material. We need someone who is right in the middle of it, with a strong enough character to rally the players and shout at them when they are not doing their defensive duties.

Losing the ball and not tracking back should be addressed by Jose, we have been doing this quite a lot, we cannot rely on Matic being everywhere to get us the ball back, this shit needs to be sorted.

This. The only thing I would add is that Mourinho is too slow to adapt his tactics when the gameplan isn’t working. Spurs did to us exactly what we did to Ajax in the EL final, but Mourinho’s response was to take out Pogba and bring on Fellaini at minute 63. He didn’t even try to change formation or add an extra midfielder, he just changed personnel.

 

[shield]

Some of these criticisms seem a little unfair to me. Martial has been settled on the left, then we bought Sanchez, who has been playing on the left recently. So clearly there is a bit of an issue there and there is likely to be a bit of trial and error in terms of how we accommodate them both. That strikes me as forgivable and deals with two of your points at once.

And the CBs, I think the thing there is that Smalling and Jones have been playing really well together for a while. It strikes me as being pretty reasonable, in such circumstances, to leave the partnership alone. That doesnt make Rojo or Lindelof surplus, you need back up defenders, we must know that better than any club. Theyll get their chances.

On the Shaw thing, I am not so sure that is based on injury, I think he prefers Young and I think that is a shame. Not that I am singling out Young for criticisms or saying Shaw would have made a huge difference, but Id have played Shaw and I hope Mourinho starts to back up his complimentary words with more selections.

Clearly there are bigger issues at play, and Mourinho hasnt figured out how best to put all his pieces together yet, that much is clear. As I said earlier, I still think he's a bit caught between his natural instinct to play one way, and pressure or explicit instruction he has had to play another as our manager. I think he is still working out how to adapt his own style of management to suit the demands of our club.

Could be. Last year, at White Hart Lane, we lost but, we were playing the Mourinho way, and we actually gave them a really hard time in the second half. That was with a team where he had rested most of his main players for the EL (no Pogba, Herrera or Zlatan), had Bailly as a RB and Rooney huffing and puffing (who, however, surprisingly, played quite well). Also, Spurs were in much better form than yesterday and were playing at home (not Wembley).

Still, he needs to figure out how he wants us to set out. He is just too confused here. At Chelsea, things were very simple. No one expected them to playing great attacking football, just win, and he somehow, managed to do both. Here, things are more complicated ... more media, more scrutiny, more fans, more legends, more history.

 

[Cliche Guevara]

Whatever he had in mind vs Spurs could clearly be seen up until the second goal. And it could've worked, we were right in their face and then again a brain fart and we concede a stupid goal like that. Both goals were the teams fault, how can anybody think that a manager that clearly prepared the team for exactly that is at fault is beyond me. After the second goal the team clearly just shut up shop and we went into somekind of damage control, prolly the team was afraid of being battered like vs Chelsea, and as the overpaid pussies they are nobody looked like they wanted to play anymore bar Martial and Sanchez. Then all hell broke lose, we were losing every ball and the ref didn't help with his decisions, Alexis was battered, cleary targeted by Spurs, especially by Kane, and we let them. I wonder why didn't any of our players protect him as in kick the living daylight out of him like Keane would. Matic should've set that record straight with Kane.

Only one who gave a s*** was Alexis, running up and down, yelling at others to help press etc.. And some of you say Mourinho clearly doesn't know what he wants to do with him. He bought him for his footballing ability definetly, but also for his never say die attitude that is lacking across the board in the first IX.

And even then the manager cleary wanted to set up in an attacking manner, away from home, vs one of the top 6 clubs. You wanted the "United way" you would've gotten the "United way" and still some of you aren't satisfied.

Ask the team why they clearly failed to execute the managers demands (see first goal), Pogba for not understanding Mourinhos instructions, Jones for being paranoid, Smalling for being Chris instead of Mike etc.. I hope he made them walk all the way to Manchester.

That’s pretty much exactly how I saw it. Very disappointed in the players. You can say what you like about the system but it was absolutely no excuse for that shite.

Further, I was expecting a blistering interview from Jose but I think there might have been a few injuries etc behind the scenes and he wasn’t confident of a result. He certainly never threw anyone under the bus. Which wasn’t parked.

 

[Abhinav]

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This to me a damning statistic that underlines the team’s soft underbelly. And this is more so on players and their lack of belief and confidence. Plus, I think it is a reflection of the post Sir Alex era. When we used to concede under Fergie, the manager used to believe we could come back, the team used to believe we could come back, and the crowd held the same belief. With three years of relative failure, the team and supporters have been scarred. Its not an easy turnaround.

 

[MDFC Manager]

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This is absolutely damning, to say the least. Just a reflection of the strategies that he employs. Horrific.