Mourinho's Press Conference, Huddersfield (a): Sat, 6:30 pm, CET

[Raees]

With all due respect, I reckon Jose (and Neville) have a better idea what formation our midfield was in than you do.

I actually don't. So there.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

I am pretty sure Valencia fans would argue he doesn't know anything at all, but that is besides the point. Comments such as that are just futile and serve no purpose.

You could say, sure what does LVG know? and you'd argue he knew feck all during his time here, as you disagreed with him despite him being far more tactically knowledgeable than a Neville.

When an ex-professional footballer (and manager) watches a game of football, I'm willing to bet he has a better idea about the formation that's being used on the pitch than 99.99% of the people on here, including you.

Whether that - in itself - makes him a good manager or not is another thing entirely. There's obviously more to being a manager than recognising formations.

 

[haram]

Of course, Pogba was awful. But what i'm getting at is our midfield (Matic) and back 4 are getting exposed. The balance in midfield is all wrong.

Get the balance right and it helps everyone, including Paul

Yes, but there was enough there to win. If Pogba plays like he can we win easily. Wr had the chances as well. Doesn’t help that both Herrera and Fellaini are unavailable either as he did play Matic, Herrera and Pogba vs Everton away.

 

[Raees]

When an ex-professional footballer (and manager) watches a game of football, I'm willing to accept he has a better idea about the formation that's being used on the pitch than 99.99% of the people on here. Whether that makes him a good manager or not is another thing entirely.

Complete horseshit. For one, I am a qualified coach myself, and worked at premier league football club, played semi-pro.. does it make me always right? no clearly not. There's plenty of posters on here who know alot more than I do about the game.

Were you right about some things, more than LVG? yes you were. I agreed with alot of your posts during that time.

Are ex professionals like Phil Neville, going to speak more sense about a game than some of the best posters on here? hell no. He's a moron.

Michael Owen would probably struggle to get through the newbies. Stop making out like every ex footballer has the brain of a Johann Cruyff.

 

[Thisistheone]

Yes, but there was enough there to win. If Pogba plays like he can we win easily. Wr had the chances as well. Doesn’t help that both Herrera and Fellaini are unavailable either as he did play Matic, Herrera and Pogba vs Everton away.

Agree, we could have won on another day. Sanchez puts that chance away, or Martial and it's a different game. But it was a slog, lets be honest. We didn't play well.

I'm hoping that Mourinho buys 2 excellent midfielders in the summer and we see a far better, more balanced midfield 3. Lingard will need to settle on being a squad player for the forwards.

Everton away was like Juventus Pogba. He needs to produce more of that obviously.

 

[red_devil83]

It's all well and good saying Pogba played on the left with Lingard on the right but Lingard isn't a central midfielder. That's like getting a drive in a Ferrari with 3 wheels. Great, it's a Ferrari but you're gonna have a shit time cos it's only got 3 wheels.

 

[Faetheshire86]

So it was Lingard's fault all along?!

I have been saying for a while that we have been playing something like a 4-3-3. It was after some game (maybe Stoke) that Pogba said the manager moved him back alongside Matic to provide more protection. Lingard has been playing more advanced of Pogba, who in turn has been playing more advanced of Matic. It was working fine for a bit, but maybe we need something more structured moving forward

 

[Hawks2008]

I meant we blew our chances.

Sorry, I misread your post. My bad dude.

 

[Ban]

Complete horseshit. For one, I am a qualified coach myself, and worked at premier league football club, played semi-pro.. does it make me always right? no clearly not. There's plenty of posters on here who know alot more than I do about the game.

Were you right about some things, more than LVG? yes you were. I agreed with alot of your posts during that time.

Are ex professionals like Phil Neville, going to speak more sense about a game than some of the best posters on here? hell no. He's a moron.

Michael Owen would probably struggle to get through the newbies. Stop making out like every ex footballer has the brain of a Johann Cruyff.

Which club?

 

[Raees]

Which club?

West Bromwich Albion, my local side.

 

[Tincanalley]

It's all well and good saying Pogba played on the left with Lingard on the right but Lingard isn't a central midfielder. That's like getting a drive in a Ferrari with 3 wheels. Great, it's a Ferrari but you're gonna have a shit time cos it's only got 3 wheels.

I would use a different analogy. I would say it's like having a multi wheeled vehicle, only that at least two of the central wheels have a tendency to migrate, especially when going around bends.

 

[PlayerOne]

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Since the talk is about positions here.

 

[Ole90+3]

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Since the talk is about positions here.

I'm actually surprised at how far pushed up Jones and Smalling are. I've thought that was a big thing missing from our performances since Bailly's been injured; our defence sitting too deep. With the pace of Smalling and Jones, they should be pushed up all the way to the half way line in most games. Means there's less distance to get the ball into the final third. Sounds simplistic, but makes sense.

 

[Raees]

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Since the talk is about positions here.

LINGARD'S PASSING MAP V NEWCASTLE

Looking at the average position and the passing maps, which show you from where he made his passes.. it does not look like he was a right sided CM to me.

 

[Sassy Colin]

Journo: Jose, can I ask you about Paul Pogba? Because, again, there has been a lot of speculation this week. I just wonder, how happy do you feel –

Jose (Interrupting): I think you are (being) nice with your words. Because when you say “a lot of speculation” you should say, “a lot of lies”. Because I accept – and I can speak on Paul’s behalf without any kind of problem – Paul accepts that he has not been playing well in the last few matches, but that’s all. And if you want to speak about that, then that’s one thing; and then your word ‘speculation’ maybe makes a little bit of sense. But (regarding) the majority of the things that you can read and you can listen to, don’t be nice. Be objective and say “lies”.

Journo: Obviously I don’t know what goes on in and around the dressing room, so what have your conversations been like with Paul, and is there still any kind of convincing still needs to be done on his role?

Jose: I don’t have to speak with you on my conversations with any players. I don’t have to tell you anything about it. It’s my problem, it’s the players problem. A big lie is that our relationship is not good. A big lie (is) that (Pogba and I) don’t communicate. A big lie (is) that we don’t agree on his positions and with his involvement in the dynamics of the team; so be objective, be objective and say what we all know. In the last couple of matches he didn’t play well. Period. End of story.

Now its my problem and Paul’s problem to deal with it, to try and to improve his performance level. So - to go round it, you don’t need to be a liar.

Journo: Jose, how confident are you then that you can get the best out of Paul and in which position that might be?

Jose: The position? It's quite ridiculous to speak about it. I don’t want to be … nasty with another countries’ pundit industry. Because obviously there are very good pundits in other countries. But I think we have here, at least in number, the biggest pundit industry. Because there are hundreds of them. And the majority of them with a great background in football and a great knowledge of football. And I would like somebody to tell me, in which position you think Pogba played against Newcastle? I would like people to tell me, in which position you think Pogba played against Newcastle? Any one of you want to tell me?

Journo: Can you tell us?

Jose: No, no. Can you tell me?

Journo: Midfield?

Jose: Sorry?

Journo: Midfield?


Jose: Ok, midfield. But we played with one number six and two number eights? Or two eights and one ten? Or two six and one ten? We played with one six and two eights. We played with Matic as a six, Lingard on the right side of Matic, and Pogba on the left side. You know which is Pogba’s preferred system? 4-3-3. Do you know which is Pogba’s favourite position in the 4-3-3? Eight on the left. So it's easy and honest and objective to say Paul didn’t play well against Newcastle. But some of the guys they are paid millions. Don’t let people read things that are not true. You are paid to read the game and to explain to people the game. Don’t say bullshit.

Journo: Has there been anything behind it…? You said yourself his displays have not been as high as they were since the start of the season. Has there been anything behind it in injury in illness?

Jose: Look he had a big injury. He had a big injury, in the season. He almost went to surgery like Dembele in Barcelona went with a very similar injury. The decision was not to do it, and go to a conservatory treatment, the results went really well. Everybody was really happy with the way things went. He was playing phenomenal before that. He played phenomenal after that. He had a red card against Arsenal probably in his best match of the season and in his best moment and probably the teams best moment. He was out for a long, long time and in this moment he is not playing well. Period. Period. He is not playing well, period. And the team needs him at a good level. And when he is not at a good level the team is not as good as the team is when he plays phenomenal. I think it happens with every team when the best players, the most crucial players for some reason are not performing. Period. You don't need to come with histories, you don’t need to come with ‘we are going to sell him’ ‘we want to sell him’. ‘he wants to leave’. ‘We fight every day’ ‘We don’t see each other’.

You don’t need that. You don’t need that. And some people go in that direction. Some of them, I know them for many, many years. I know the profile. I know that their surname is Liar. Now. There are people in your world their surname is Liar. You know. And that’s not nice. But that's enough of Paul. You want to know if he plays tomorrow? Yeah.

It's amazing how he directly calls him, and his colleagues in the press, liars and yet he does not react at all, just carries on with the questioning as if nothing had happened.

These journalist really are the lowest of the low and fair play to Jose for calling them out.

I wonder whether we'll see any headlines in the papers saying the Jose called them all liars.

 

[Sassy Colin]

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Since the talk is about positions here.

What's that No. 1 doing, lazy sod, keep up with the play ffs!

I'm actually surprised at how far pushed up Jones and Smalling are. I've thought that was a big thing missing from our performances since Bailly's been injured; our defence sitting too deep. With the pace of Smalling and Jones, they should be pushed up all the way to the half way line in most games. Means there's less distance to get the ball into the final third. Sounds simplistic, but makes sense.

If you actually watched us play, you would know how high up the pitch our defence plays. It does not surprise me at all to see them that high up.

I think that problem more is Lukaku/Martial/Sanchez playing so close together

 

[Thisistheone]

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Since the talk is about positions here.

So either Mourinho is bullshitting or Lingard decided not to play midfield.

 

[cyberman]

LINGARD'S PASSING MAP V NEWCASTLE

Looking at the average position and the passing maps, which show you from where he made his passes.. it does not look like he was a right sided CM to me.

He didn't say he was a CM.
There's posts on here crying out for fluid movement yet are baffled when stats etc doesn't show fixed positions.

 

[Cassidy]

It's amazing how he directly calls him, and his colleagues in the press, liars and yet he does not react at all, just carries on with the questioning as if nothing had happened.

These journalist really are the lowest of the low and fair play to Jose for calling them out.

I wonder whether we'll see any headlines in the papers saying the Jose called them all liars.

Do you remember when LVG called them out...

 

[AltiUn]

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Since the talk is about positions here.

Shows how much we're crying out for a bit of width.

 

[Adnan]

LINGARD'S PASSING MAP V NEWCASTLE

Looking at the average position and the passing maps, which show you from where he made his passes.. it does not look like he was a right sided CM to me.

If he was sent out as a 8, then this proves he didn't have the foggiest on how to play that position. Not surprising considering it's not his position.

 

[Raees]

He didn't say he was a CM.
There's posts on here crying out for fluid movement yet are baffled when stats etc doesn't show fixed positions.

He said he was a right sided midfielder. If that is the case, why is he just as prominent down the left hand side too. He is also so attacking from that pic.

Explain how that is going to give Pogba the licence to roam?

Suddenly because the stats don't support what the manager is saying, they're suddenly useless when they paint the picture so clearly, that Jose is lying or at best, trying to cover up for the fact that it clearly was not what you would traditionally recognise as a three man midfield and certainly not a midfield designed to hand Pogba the keys to our attack.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Shows how much we're crying out for a bit of width.

Sanchez and Martial switched flanks, which makes their average position look much narrower than it actually was.

 

[PlayerOne]

LINGARD'S PASSING MAP V NEWCASTLE

Looking at the average position and the passing maps, which show you from where he made his passes.. it does not look like he was a right sided CM to me.

Didn't look like to me either, he rarely drifted out wide. The players either don't understand what Jose is asking or they're doing whatever they want. Not sure which is worse .

 

[AltiUn]

Sanchez and Martial switched flanks, which makes their average position look much narrower than it actually was.

Oh yeah of course, forgot about that.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

He said he was a right sided midfielder. If that is the case, why is he just as prominent down the left hand side too. He is also so attacking from that pic.

Explain how that is going to give Pogba the licence to roam?

Suddenly because the stats don't support what the manager is saying, they're suddenly useless when they paint the picture so clearly, that Jose is lying or at best, trying to cover up for the fact that it clearly was not what you would traditionally recognise as a three man midfield and certainly not a midfield designed to hand Pogba the keys to our attack.

Jesse and Pogba will have both been given license to roam. That’s the whole point in getting Matic to hold. That pass map tells us nothing useful. Number 8s don’t run up and down the pitch in straight lines, either side of the centre circle.

You should post Pogba and Matic’s pass maps beside it if you want to make sense of how they were used.

 

[cyberman]

He said he was a right sided midfielder. If that is the case, why is he just as prominent down the left hand side too. He is also so attacking from that pic.

Explain how that is going to give Pogba the licence to roam?

Suddenly because the stats don't support what the manager is saying, they're suddenly useless when they paint the picture so clearly, that Jose is lying or at best, trying to cover up for the fact that it clearly was not what you would traditionally recognise as a three man midfield and certainly not a midfield designed to hand Pogba the keys to our attack.

Because the game became stretched for a while, Jose subbed Pogba off and pushed Lingard forward for a good third of the game. Because the midfield scrambled everytime Pogba gave away the ball tor failed to make a run for a pass.
That pass map looks even which isn't a bad thing but it's still a pass map. Lingard gives and goes and moves between lines so his passing map wouldn't be static no matter where he plays.
Sanchez clearly started on the left but I'd bet his map looks similar, hell his biggest chance came when he couldn't get his feet right for a chance when he ran from left to right.

 

[Andycoleno9]

" some of them have surname liar". Great job jose.

 

[Holocene]

Image of average positions
Since the talk is about positions here.

It shows Pogba and Lingard operating the same space, centrally.

Perhaps Mourinho instructed Lingard to play as a right midfielder, but the average position shows different.

 

[Raees]

Because the game became stretched for a while, Jose subbed Pogba off and pushed Lingard forward for a good third of the game. Because the midfield scrambled everytime Pogba gave away the ball tor failed to make a run for a pass.
That pass map looks even which isn't a bad thing but it's still a pass map. Lingard gives and goes and moves between lines so his passing map wouldn't be static no matter where he plays.
Sanchez clearly started on the left but I'd bet his map looks similar, hell his biggest chance came when he couldn't get how feet right for a chance when he ran from left to right.

Still doesn't explain why Jessi made 9 passes in his own half, whereas Pogba made 21, thus demonstrating that Pogba had to be the deeper-lying midfielder out of the two, so this lie about him having just as much freedom to roam as Jesse and that they were both 8's with same licence to attack with Matic holding is bullshit.

If Pogba played the 8 role in the same way as Jesse (which he pretty much tried to as he was so reckless and indisciplined in this game) it leaves Matic as the sole guy in the central midfield area.

Either way, the passing maps suggest a lack of structure in the midfield, no real tactical discipline and a lack of pattern to the way we move the ball around.

 

[Cassidy]

Still doesn't explain why Jessi made 9 passes in his own half, whereas Pogba made 21, thus demonstrating that Pogba had to be the deeper-lying midfielder out of the two, so this lie about him having just as much freedom to roam as Jesse and that they were both 8's with same licence to attack with Matic holding is bullshit.

If Pogba played the 8 role in the same way as Jesse (which he pretty much tried to as he was so reckless and indisciplined in this game) it leaves Matic as the sole guy in the central midfield area.

Either way, the passing maps suggest a lack of structure in the midfield, no real tactical discipline and a lack of pattern to the way we move the ball around.

Don't confuse how each plays the role with freedom and licence from the manager

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Don't confuse how each plays the role with freedom and licence from the manager

Indeed. Pogba put so little effort in I’m willing to bet Jesse ran a couple of km more than him.

 

[cyberman]

@Raees
Maybe because Pogba comes deep for the ball and likes to play his way forward? A licence to roam and influence play doesn't just mean forward runs or we may as well just play him as a 10.
Lets not forget that Pogba was subbed and criticised for underperforming, Jose is just pointing out its not because of a 4-3-3 issue.
If anything, Lingards map would show somebody playing his position and supporting Paul when he drifts. If his movement was entirely down the right then Pogba doesn't really get that freedom.

 

[Sassy Colin]

Do you remember when LVG called them out...

I thought he said "That man", not "Fat man"?

 

[PieCrust]

But he was only talking about playing Lingard as a CM for the Newcastle game. Unless you think he's been playing there for a while with Herrera on the bench?

Do you think Herrera is a starter for us next season?

I already clearly stated that Lingard has been playing the #10 role for almost all of his starts this year btw.

 

[GM K]

It was the same against Spurs. Jose sees Lingard as a midfielder, he never mentioned him as a attacking player. You can see why we get overrun in the midfield

Ermm....Lingard has actually played as an attacking midfielder or wide forward all his life.

 

[Bastian]

Quite something that Jose states that Pogba's favourite formation is 433 and that his favourite role is as an 8 on the left. When he asks the journos which position they think he played against Newcastle he is inviting continued analysis and debate.

Disappointed he didn't mention anything about needing a strong ref tomorrow, given how they play.

 

[GM K]

That's what he said, but it's not really what happens on the pitch. Lingard is quite obviously playing a more central #10 role and nobody really knows what Pogba is doing right now. Admittidly, I had to watch the Newcastle match on a crappy stream and I was only half watching, so maybe Lingard wasn't playing the #10 role, but he has been for almost every match he's started this season.

Anyway, a midfield 3 is the right approach in my mind, but Lingard isn't part of that or we end up with 2 midfielders attempting to play forward, leaving Matic exposed. Pogba needs to be the main driving force from CM, with Matic playing deep and a box to box type (we will buy this player in the summer I believe, since Herrera has fallen off the map and we have no one else to fill the role) playing the last spot. It won't work with Pogba/Matic/Lingard.

Give it up man. The man is telling you how the team was set up and yet you say otherwise.

Maybe people should just accept the fact that Pogba needs to step up his game, eh? Nothing wrong with that. Jose himself admitted the kid is having a bit of a rough patch.
This whole scenario just shows us that we need serious midfield re-enforcement. As incredibly talented as Pogba is, I doubt if he is the kind of player that can single handedly drag a team along as many of the greats have done. But I hope I am wrong. I am a big fan of his.

 

[GM K]

Quite something that Jose states that Pogba's favourite formation is 433 and that his favourite role is as an 8 on the left. When he asks the journos which position they think he played against Newcastle he is inviting continued analysis and debate.

Disappointed he didn't mention anything about needing a strong ref tomorrow, given how they play.

Something indeed. Now we know that's indeed what Pogba prefers and we know that Jose knows. That clears up some air.

 

[Bastian]

Something indeed. Now we know that's indeed what Pogba prefers and we know that Jose knows. That clears up some air.

I don't really see the benefit of coming out and saying this unless he favours this formation himself. Will be interesting to see how we'll lineup over the next few weeks.