Positives from Mourinho's spell at United?

Web of Bissaka

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Strangely, people saying all the signings that have continued were signed by the club and not him. How do you know? It is a stupid thing to say as you could selectively say that about any signing. I could say that about Fernandes without any real evidence. Like it or not, they were signed whilst Mourinho was manager. It seems people only want to attribute the not so successful parts e.g. no credit for Pogba but get the blame for Mkhitaryan - who actually contributed quite a lot to the Europa League victory.
All?
That's too overstretching.

You know how the system of players joining and leaving but more so buying players at United works right? albeit it's unique at first i.e. "traditionally" highly dependent on manager but now it's changing. I think the "transition" started during LVG's first season. The "situation" or management then is a mess but finally getting into proper form in Mou's second season I believe.

Fact is there were recent reports finally detailing how the negotiation/discussion of players system are being handled within the club, and no, not just one person that decide all. The system they used is somewhat similar to majority rules or something. It's possible that the manager may not push for certain players but the players can still be bought. From this, we can make inference of connections with the players that were being brought in during LVG, Mou and Ole.

I think the club signed only three -- Fred, Grant and Sanchez. Mou is not against them. Meaning, the club scouts and the other internal people in charge were the one that recommended and push the deal to get them. Mou didn't made any specific requests nor play active roles in getting them. Grant is arguably a "player" with specific criteria which Mou requested in response to Romero's injury and to also allow the other youth keepers continue on loan which the club get him for because it's cheap and aligned with the youth philosophy. Basically club signings is when Mou being passive in getting them.

The other players like Pogba, Bailly, Zlatan, Mkhi and the rest are definitely Mou's signings because he play active roles in getting them all. There were good reliable reports of Mou contacting Pogba and Zlatan personally to convince him (if I recall the players themselves revealed it), he also watched Bailly, Dalot and Lindelof play in their respective leagues, and Mkhi is similar to Pog and Zlat -- all three are the voted best players in their leagues before joining. All those are also Mou's typical type of players.

Another speculation for me is that Bruno is not Ole's signing, moreso he's the club's signing but Ole is not against getting him. I think the club scouts (and the others) recommended to get Bruno early season 2019/20 but they may decided to give faith to Lingard so no deal... yet since the situation kept on getting worse, getting Bruno became an urgent in Jan. The other three is Ole's (direct) signing. Ighalo is similarly Ole's request and the club get him that player who fits the profile.
 

Andycoleno9

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Fred may came in during his time, but pretty sure that's more of a club signing rather than Mou's choice/demand. He still used Fred of course and praised him at times.
Funny how he is often accused for signing Alexis and Mikhi but Fred and Lindelof somehow are not his signings.
Players who are signed during one manager are his signings. Sure, they are not maybe his first pick but i am sure that manager of Man Utd can decline signing certain player and has final say in transfers.
 

KennyBurner

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The negatives outweigh the positives but he did win 2 trophies here. He also brought in Fred, lindelof and mctominay who have been staple players for our first team. That’s about it though.

it’s funny because when we decided to bring him in, I was initially happy although I new at some point we would have to get rid because I wasn’t a fan of his style. It’s also the same case with lukaku. I always wondered how it was going to end because deep down I knew they were never going to be enough coaching wise and talentwise in lukaku’s case.
we are also still feeling the negative effects of mourinhos reign. Sanchez the higest earner in the EPL who hasn’t scored up to 5 goals for us and we can’t get rid of him. Also lost a good soldier in Herrera. There are so many that getting Into it just infuriates me.
 

MadDogg

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Funny how he is often accused for signing Alexis and Mikhi but Fred and Lindelof somehow are not his signings.
Players who are signed during one manager are his signings. Sure, they are not maybe his first pick but i am sure that manager of Man Utd can decline signing certain player and has final say in transfers.
In regards to Fred, 12 months ago people were trying to defend Mourinho by saying Fred was a club signing and not his. Now that he's come good it's gone the other way and those claims are now a negative against Mourinho. I somewhat disagreed then and I'll somewhat disagree now. Like you said he may not necessarily have been first choice but that doesn't mean Mourinho didn't want him.

I tend to think Alexis was the same - not someone Mourinho specifically wanted but he was happy to take him when the opportunity came up.
 

phonics_tid

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You know one of the things that pisses me off the most about Mourinho.

I hated him for most of his career at other clubs, couldn’t stand him at Chelsea, thought he was an utter tool at Madrid, couldn’t stand him again in his second spell at Chelsea. Then he came into our club and said that Old Trafford was his home. I bought into it immediately and jumped on the bandwagon.

Then to see that self destructive nature of his over the preceding years was truly unbelievabl. The man has talent, no doubt about it, but all that quality is completely eroded when it comes to the baggage that comes with him. Still to this day, I only blame him for it going the way that it did.

The only way is down after us and yet he repeatedly pressed that self destruct button. Because of that, I have very little respect for the man and am absolutely delighted he’s no longer associated with our club.
 

Robertd0803

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The Europa League win.
The League Cup win.
McTominay.
Ibra.
Theres a few games there where the tactics worked great (Chelsea/Liverpool at OT).
The handling of the Rooney situation although Southgate had pretty much given him a head start.
 

Maccataq

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There were some positives but not many:

Europa League - although I felt more relieved than happy that we won it after some of Jose's 7 defender scrambles to protect leads and the prospect of going back into it. I was at the semi-final vs Celta Vigo - they should have put us out in the last minute and it was typical of Jose negative tactics to invite such situations. That said, he got his tactics spot on in the final and there were some good games on the route to the final and of course, it completed the set.

League Cup - enjoyed this, went to the final which was the Zlatan show, speaking of which...

Zlatan - a bit like another top Swedish striker, we will always be left to wonder how good it would have been to have him in his prime. Big personality and I think you could trace when things started going wrong back to when Zlatan departed to LA; he was massive for the dressing room.

His departure - so glad to see the back of him! I've only seen 3 managers sacked by Man Utd (as with many on here) but he is the only one where I was practically celebrating. Ok, Moyes was dreadful and had to go but I wasn't happy about sacking a manager 10 months after Fergie departed; and LVG was a strange one since it all leaked when we won the FA Cup and I felt like he might have kicked on with another year and some good recruitment, although the football was pretty dreadful most of the time.

A few some others have mentioned:

Fred - this is not a positive of Jose! He didn't really even want him and only agreed to take him because he knew he would be short in midfield. Never really showed much faith in him and whilst he probably was at the club long enough to see him properly settle in, credit has to go to Ole, not Jose.

McTominay - maybe I'm just cynical but I feel Jose just picked the tallest player in the u23s to help out and struck lucky. Again, credit to Ole as he has since flourished having been given more responsibility and started playing more expansive. In fairness, Jose probably does warrant some credit here.

Pogba - whether you like him or not, he is a great player but can't see how falling out with your record signing can be spun as a positive, regardless of your stance on Pogba

Matic - i've changed my mind on Matic, I was happy to get rid but since he came back into the team, he has been very good and showed how badly he was being managed by Jose, i.e. Jose ran him into the ground and wouldn't trust anyone else.
 

lex talionis

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Great topic for a thread. On the positive side, there's no denying that EL win was huge for United. But the negatives overwhelm the positive. We were terrible to watch, and apart from Zlatan there really was no good reason to follow United closely during those years, although of course we all did. He has no excuses for the appalling air of negativity he brought to the club.

I really thought he has always wanted to manage United and believed he would be a triumph. Shame on us who thought this.
 

Andersons Dietician

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So what you are all saying is that afer LVG laid the foundations, Mourinho took a sledge hammer to it and then laid us new ones? :drool:

Give it a couple of years when posters and Mourinho will start claiming credit for the fundamental work he did.
The Josets will do anything to protect their messiah so more than likely.
 

Craig Ward

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Not many positives to write home about.

The worst managerial appointment in recent times for the scale of our club.

What did we know about Jose before we hired him:
2-3 seasons max
He will create a drama, whether it be against the media, the FA, his own players, the board - there will be a conflict
His track record of trophies is good, but he often leaves clubs in a storm of controversy

So i would analysis his tenure here as typical Jose

The negatives outweigh the positives by FAR.

His transfer dealings we're at best shambolic, his player management was atrocious and he left the club no better, arguably worse than when we took over.

He was evidently tactically out of sync with modern football. A miracle we finished 2nd and won a trophy - we should have been out of the europa several times so it was hardly a masterstroke of Jose's. And we bombed in the champions league the following season because the squad was not good enough.

What irks me the most about our recent history is the fact we are not changing the squad for the better, we have kept hold of players that should have been sold seasons ago and signed badly on top of that. Thankfully, Ole is putting that right with some good dealings in transfer outgoings.

Even the signing of Zlatan winds me up a bit, because he just highlighted how poor everyone else was. We over relied on him and played route one, defensive dire football to hide the shortcomings that we couldnt get the ball on the deck and play a bit. Everyone slams LVG for his transfer dealings but Jose's was horrendous.

It was a horrible, lazy appointment that was always going to end in failure.

Poor Spurs
 

Tiber

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Sacking him mid-season instead of waiting until the end of the season was a huge positive
 

padzilla

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We won some trophies and had our highest finish in the PL since Fergie left. That speaks volumes in itself about how grim it's been since 2013.
 

Offside

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16/17 felt like a positive to win two trophies especially the Europa League which we’d never won. But looking back now we were an absolute boring crap team. Didn’t deserve to beat Southampton at all in that League Cup final and shithoused our way through every round in the Europa League.

Results wise Mouriniho is clear of LVG and Moyes at United by a mile but he still absolutely stunk at United.
 

RooneyLegend

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None what so ever. All it showed was a keeper can carry a team to some decency if be played at an outrageous level.
 

Rolaholic

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Really hard to have fond memories of his time here given how it all went down in flames at the end but I guess he did help us complete our trophy collection even if we did shithouse our way to it.

The season we came 2nd was also alright but not nearly as impressive as he made it out to be some sort of badge of honor regardless of the fact we never came close to challenging the eventual champions at any point.

Was oddly optimistic after that season though thinking we'd be able to build on it only for him to throw the toys out the pram and go too war with everything and everyone associated to the club during the following preseason. Going to war with the board is one thing but he took it to a lower level when he started aiming his bitterness towards the fans who paid money to support the team as well as the youngsters from the academy.

I'll always remember him more for that post elimination interview after Sevilla than the few positives we experienced under him. That might be the most disgraceful interview/presser I've ever seen from any manager in football and it made me feel a great bit of shame for the club seeing the man meant to take us into the future just absolutely dragging our club and it's history through the mud in a transparent and ego driven attempt at self-preservation.

By the time he carried on that dire attitude into the next season preparations, I had started to eagerly anticipate and count down the days before his sack as it felt like he was actively trying everything to get his payoff at that point.

Good riddance I say and good luck to Spuds, they made a deal with the devil that will set them back years
 

tomaldinho1

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Otherwise I really think his time here was a catastrophic failure - some fans will try and spin it positively in that he won 'some' trophies but the League cup has been a joke cup for years and whilst it's great we won the Europa League, it's hardly a prize that fits the obscene spending that happened with him at the helm. Personally I think his style of management is reliant on getting the squad onboard instantly, basically by spending big on some key players who bring immediate short term improvement on the field and get the players thinking they're heading in the right direction. Once most players are bought in, he can get away with being out of order to players he doesn't like but because we never really improved in my opinion (yes second season was decent but we should have been closer to City by some margin) he lost the dressing room even quicker than usual. Once he knew player support was all but gone and Woodward rightly stopped him getting his 3rd CB, after the first two no longer took his fancy, he just waited for the sack all the while undermining the club and creating almost daily negative headlines for us.
 

SadlerMUFC

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The only positive from Mourinho's spell at United was that it didn't last longer than it did. But even that isn't a positive because he never should have been given the job to begin with. The only time Mourinho would have made sense was as SAF's replacement instead of Moyes. By the time we got him he was (and still is) a washed up has been who is too concerned about himself rather than the club he manages...
 

gerdm07

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Do we really need to discuss Mourinho again? I'm so past his term here.
 

Greck

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Still maintain we have ourselves to blame for keeping him past the 2nd year thanks to our desperation complex of always wanting a messiah. His 2nd season was a step in the right direction but we let him stay long enough to become a villain and torpedo the club. Someone tell the club you can absolutely sack a manager after coming second if it's the right time
 

Rood

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Europa League is the only one and Im sure not it was worth for it for the mess he left !
 

Beachryan

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He's gone and his reputation is in tatters. Almost makes it worth it.
 

Stacks

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Think we are being a bit too unkind.

Lots of positives, mostly early on:
  • Dropped Rooney from starting position and let him go when previous two managers were reluctant
  • Won a couple of trophies
  • Qualified for Champions League twice
  • Finished second during a time where the league is at its most competitive
  • Brought a special player to the club in Zlatan, who made a huge contribution in his first season
  • Identified McTominay, and put a lot of faith in him early on where a lot of us were not quite seeing his potential (he also could have easily ruined his career by playing him at CB to try and prove a point to the board, but that's another story)
  • Dull football and tactics aside, he actually made Fellaini useful and a match winner on many occasions
There are of course, far more negatives than positives, but the point stands that he wasn't a complete disaster and actually did some good for the club, at least not until season 3.
bought Pogba also. The 2nd place finish and FA Cup final is better than anything we have seen or will likely have for many years, results wise
 

Nickelodeon

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I will always remember Mourinho as more of a rival than a past manager. The only positive that can be derived from his reign is knowing that he is past-it and will probably never be a thorn in our side like he has been in the past. I can't wait to watch him implode at Spurs.

Alongside the Sevilla post match presser, his post match comments on the Spurs at OT game where he magically used the 3-0 defeat as a way to point towards 3 PL titles for him. This was followed by the '3' gesture at Chelsea and also at Juve showed that it was never about the team. I never imagined I would dislike a manager so much, let alone a United manager. He is never going to be worth the trouble as the Spurs fans are going to find out in 6-12 months.
 
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POF

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There were some positives. Zlatan wouldn't have joined without Jose, he moved Rooney on expertly and De Gea was on his way out under Van Gaal. Jose's arrival definitely contributed to him staying.

But the main thing I learned from Jose's tenure at United was the importance of culture at a football club. Mourinho is tactically clever but he just wasn't the right fit for the club. Almost everything he did was in complete contrast to the club's values.

That United are now on the path to rebuild that culture is definitely a positive.