That alone would be a good season. It's getting back to where Ferguson once had United I think.
Jose Mourinho | 2017/18 Assessments | Poll Added
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Certainly significant progress. I can't be arsed to check but I think it's unusual for a team to get that many points and not win the league.
I looked earlier in the week. Last 5 seasons under Ferguson was an average of 85 or 86 points. That's including 3 titles and two runner up positions (one on goal difference).
Won't be easy though - we need another 5 wins I think (not checking the math).
We do. No idea who we play but when in two other competitions it's a tricky balance.
Of course, hopefully rivals slip up and second becomes sufficiently simple that it doesn't need our focus and our points tally can just be a potential nice thing rather than an important one.
"You can be in control of the game without the ball. Against Liverpool you can be in trouble when you have the ball, it allows them to do what they do better. We were quite aggressive in the first half, we wanted to have control of the game, spaces for transition and try to exploit - not weaknesses - but points where the opponent is not so good.
"The second half, it was not our intention to be as defensive as we were. Liverpool pushed us back but I don't remember the chances that need David de Gea to make the goal safe." - Jose Mourinho.
Now we know that Mourinho didn't say to the team at half time, 'We are two goals up. Go into the second half, sit deep and defend for 45 minutes.'
People actually believe he did so.
"The second half, it was not our intention to be as defensive as we were. Liverpool pushed us back but I don't remember the chances that need David de Gea to make the goal safe." - Jose Mourinho.
Now we know that Mourinho didn't say to the team at half time, 'We are two goals up. Go into the second half, sit deep and defend for 45 minutes.'
People actually believe he did so.
This was meant to be our toughest month with; Chelsea, Liverpool and now Sevilla and Brighton in the FA Cup.
If we get through this he deserves so much credit.
If we get through this he deserves so much credit.
Since Mourinho arrived, there haven't been many matches in which it is obvious he's a top manager; this was one.
He spotted weaknesses in Liverpool's defence and exploited them. His team defended to his instructions, successfully restricting Liverpool's chances.
His faith in McTominay looked fully justified. Bringing Fellaini on made a big difference in the 2nd half.
Even Young did a decent job preventing Salah from hurting us.
He spotted weaknesses in Liverpool's defence and exploited them. His team defended to his instructions, successfully restricting Liverpool's chances.
His faith in McTominay looked fully justified. Bringing Fellaini on made a big difference in the 2nd half.
Even Young did a decent job preventing Salah from hurting us.
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What's more encouraging is that the players are stepping up.
Too often it has felt like Mourinho has had to coax and guide the players through games and difficult spells, but if this week has proven anything, it's that Mourinho trusts his players and they trust him - despite the speculation claiming otherwise.
I hope you would stop moaning when we win, but instead here you are as your normal self, bitter, moaning and agenda-driven but still not banned.
As sarcastic as you sound, rating Mourinho as the right man for United even during poor moments in our season has turned out visionary to about 40 percent of the Caf who have kneejerked their votes from options B and C to A and B... so pipe down and cheer up
So that's Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs we have beaten now, and only City have taken more points off the top 6 than we have. Will this put to bed all the criticism he's been getting for performances against top teams now?
He made everyone eat there own words today especially the media. Throughout the week, the build-up to this game was he had no answer to the Liverpool front 3 and that he was going to have to park the bus in order to avoid a hammering. We wouldn't be able to go toe-to-toe with Liverpool and the only way we would open up and show attacking intent was if we went a goal behind.
Jose is the master on how to grind out a result when no one expects him to get one.
Jose is the master on how to grind out a result when no one expects him to get one.
It was a fair criticism (or least discussion) up until the Chelsea game.
That and today's result puts him on much better ground for sure. Finish the season strong and we can look more positively into next season.
It's misplaced criticism which lead to misplaced assumptions.
You must be an optimist...
True. We are always one bad result away from a meltdown.
Mod abuse!
I'm curious, did you watch them play often or generally only in the big games? Because his Chelsea and Real sides (not sure about Inter as I rarely watched them) could play brilliant stuff most of the time. There's a reason his teams have finished as the league top scorers so often in every country he's been to.
The way we played in Fergie's last five or six years was quite similar to how Mourinho's teams generally play. Built on a solid defensive, and in the big games we could be a bit more defensive than fans or neutrals would like, but we could also play some great attacking stuff. That's where I'd ultimately expect to get with Mourinho as well. We looked good for that in the first part of the season with that run of 4-0 and 4-1 wins, but we'll need to do it a bit more consistently going forward.
Thankfully while this place has it's restrictions it's not reached RAWK levels yet where people are banned for having their own opinion that doesn't tie-in with the groupthink mentality, I've rarely ever complained about the results so they were never going to change my issues with this regime.
I saw a lot of his Chelsea and Real Madrid sides, they were on Sky most weeks, the Real side scored a lot of goals and were good on the counter so they racked up numbers while sitting deep, I never found either side entertaining though.
This constant comparison to even latter day Fergie is wide of the mark IMO, while he did get a bit more cautious in his old age, he was also using a team that was nowhere near as lavished with investment as this squad, he had to make adjustments but we were still a more coherent and expressive team than any side of Mourinho's IMO, all of his sides feel like individuals rather than attacking units with the exception of Inter.
I think Jose is far, far cleverer than the players. Or, at any rate, it takes a lot to understand and execute what he wants.
He’s probably a very complicated manager, and the journey to fruition can be a difficult one. We’ve seen over his career, however, that when it comes together it’s a formidable sight and at their best his teams can play devastating football and score loads of goals.
I really hope we complete the picture in the summer and everything settles down.
He’s probably a very complicated manager, and the journey to fruition can be a difficult one. We’ve seen over his career, however, that when it comes together it’s a formidable sight and at their best his teams can play devastating football and score loads of goals.
I really hope we complete the picture in the summer and everything settles down.
As it should be
Whatever keeps you happy.
Why is that? I don't understand all this knee jerk negativity.
Yep
It's good in that it stopped a narrative that was forming.
I still don't like him and I still don't think he's doing anything more than an acceptable job but he nailed it today, especially with Pogba and others missing. Salah was totally anonymous and I think that was more down to us shutting their attack down tactically than a great individual performance from Ashley Young.
When I saw Rashford smash the first goal in I wondered if the early, powerful shot was a specific instruction. Karius has been shown to have crap reactions.
When I saw Rashford smash the first goal in I wondered if the early, powerful shot was a specific instruction. Karius has been shown to have crap reactions.
My 2 cents.
I've been in the reverse situation with moyes, where i simply can't stand the man for whatever reason, his smugness, shit football, his demeanour, and i complain about him and wanting him sacked in favor of mourinho, or probably just about anyone else.
Although tbf to myself moyes didn't win many games and we're sitting pretty in midtable most of the season.
Yeah but this is Mourinho, not Moyes.
Exactly
Jose came up aces again today. 4 from 6 against Lollerpool and they scored zero goals (OG not to their credit).
With Pogba and Martial out, the players were ready, the team was ready to execute on many levels.
Fantastic.
With Pogba and Martial out, the players were ready, the team was ready to execute on many levels.
Fantastic.
The only thing that ever got Mourinho the sack was losing the players (and Abramovic). Outside of that he's been a successful manager all over.
So until the players turn, youve got to trust in his ability and track record. He's going to be a success here.
So until the players turn, youve got to trust in his ability and track record. He's going to be a success here.
I thought the Fellaini sub solved a problem for us. Got the team back up the park after a sticky patch of being a bit pinned back.
He has methods you may not like but he can read how a game of football is going, that's for sure.
He has methods you may not like but he can read how a game of football is going, that's for sure.
Going to be an excellent finish to the season if we win against Sevilla and BHA. 80+ points in the league (and still not in the title race
), possible FA cup win, and at least 2 more big games in CL.
This is the standard which SAF set. At least QF in the cups and 80+ points every season. This is standard Mou is also used to. Let's finish the season strongly, sign a couple of defenders, one midfielder, get Pogba and Sanchez firing, and we will be challenging for the league and CL next season.
), possible FA cup win, and at least 2 more big games in CL.This is the standard which SAF set. At least QF in the cups and 80+ points every season. This is standard Mou is also used to. Let's finish the season strongly, sign a couple of defenders, one midfielder, get Pogba and Sanchez firing, and we will be challenging for the league and CL next season.
Delighted with the result and you can’t argue with Mourinho’s ability to do a job on teams like Liverpool in terms of tactics and using likes of McTominay and Fellaini to serve a purpose.
I still don’t see a team emerging that is going to challenge city next season though. There is no consistent pattern of play or system and I am not convinced being functional and cautious will win the league next season.
I still don’t see a team emerging that is going to challenge city next season though. There is no consistent pattern of play or system and I am not convinced being functional and cautious will win the league next season.
While I'd generally agree with you, Mourinho eventually pipped a Pep managed Barcelona, who were far superior to this City side to the title. So we just gotta wait and see if he has it in him
With a Real Madrid team that was far superior to this United team. If we're going to do it next season it's going to take a good transfer window.
We're heading in the right direction, though.
Point achieved during the SAF era after 30 games:
12/13: 77
11/12: 73
10/11: 63
09/10: 66
08/09: 68
07/08: 70
We're not far from some of Fergies best ever teams.
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I think next season, teams would have sussed out this Man City team more and I can see them dropping more points. Jose just needs to continue to do what he is doing, it wont be pretty but it will be succesful. Can't wait!
Yes, We need a good window !!
Darmian/Blind/Jones/Herrera/Fellaini/Carrick/Zlatan..... If he release these 7 and buy 4/5 top class players then we will be sorted !!
RW, CM, FB and CD are priority plus integrating Perrera/Chong/Gomez/Tubenez
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