Unlike the last two manager's stints, i am certain that he is taking us in the right direction. Some finishing touches still to come, but the way we are dominating games, he is turning it around.
This is they key for me. More than results or style of play, a manager's first year should be judged on the progress he's making. And yes, while that is intrinsically linked to results and style of play, it's more than that.
Moyes had awful results and we weren't playing great either, but the thing that made me lose hope in him is we never saw any indication that he knew what his future side would look like. There was never any sense that we were on a path to something better.
With Van Gaal we would have times where it looked like everything was starting to click (usually results/performances against the bigger clubs). This gave me hope that we were heading in the right direction, but that hope would evaporate when these matches were followed by a run of dire performances. It didn't help that very few of his signings shone. In fact, it appeared that he bought a lot of them without having any idea why. There wasn't a great deal of progress made in his second season, so it became a choice of sticking with him in the hope that everything will click and those good moments would become the norm, or cutting or losses.
With Mourinho, we're playing better, more incisive and more entertaining football and the players seem more confident. It looks like he knew who he wanted to buy in the transfer market and why he wanted to buy them. There are still question marks but there's also plenty of signs that we're heading in the right direction. This is what he should be judged on this year, rather than getting Top 4.
That, and not being back at work until 3rd Jan 
