Positives from Mourinho's spell at United?

United Junkie

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Maybe unrelated but if he went to us immediatly instead of Madrid he would've been amazing. I just know that. It's mine fingerspitzengefühl telling me that.
 
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Under Moyes, we had retained the values and the changes was easily reversible. What Mou did was destroy the fabric of the club, divide our base and it just seemed a club in a civil war
In 9 months Moyes took a club who won the league by 12 points to 7th and destroyed the winning mentality of the club, and during his time and afterwards everyone went to OT thinking they could win.

Yes, Jose imploded as he usually does, but it’s nothing like the utter disaster that was Moyes.
 

RedRonaldo

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- Won 2 Trophies
- Finished 2nd place, our highest position since Fergie era.
- Shipped out Rooney
- He bought Zlatan
- Well he bought Pogba too
- He also bought Fred!
- His sacking
 

Art Vandelay

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His first season we won two trophies.

Loved Zlatan being here.

Beating Juventus in Italy felt like our biggest result in Euroe

He gave a lot of faith to Rashford as well as McTominay. Jose was questioned every week about his youth policy when he provided more minutes to youngsters than any top 6 manager in the first couple of seasons.

It didn’t work out but he’s been our most successful manager post Ferguson. Maybe the board should have listened to him or sacked him before giving him a new contract. After all our first main target after we sacked him was to pay a world record fee for a CB.
I agree and I'd add he finally got rid of Rooney to the list of positives.

He had to go in the end, but I don't think it was entirely his fault either. There seemed to be a lot of shit going on behind the scenes and he didn't deal with it well. I also don't believe the rumours about all the 30+ signings we were linked with as it just conveniently fit the narrative for the press making stuff up. It was a disaster at the end not just from him, but almost the kind of disaster we needed to get focused in the right direction again. He was also better than the two clowns that came before him.
 

anant

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In 9 months Moyes took a club who won the league by 12 points to 7th and destroyed the winning mentality of the club, and during his time and afterwards everyone went to OT thinking they could win.

Yes, Jose imploded as he usually does, but it’s nothing like the utter disaster that was Moyes.
I believe what Moyes did could have been fixed by spending more money - our players were old, and everyone knows Fergie was overachieving in his final few seasons. Mourinho basically divided our fanbase, in addition to leaving a poor side behind.
Anyways, we'd have to agree to disagree on this
 

Web of Bissaka

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  1. Fun season 2016/17
  2. McTominay
  3. Pogba
  4. Zlatan
  5. Trophies (EL mainly to complete highest trophies cabinet)
  6. Shifted out deadwoods especially Rooney in a good way, Schweini, Schneiderlin, Depay, etc.
  7. Continue trusting Rashford.
  8. Solid season 2017/18
  9. Herrera.
  10. Matic.
  11. Shaw final season.
  12. He did say out loud many flaw by the club management at those times. He doesn't provide the solution though and instead escalating it even further. After sacking him, club finally hit the right option by getting back to the roots which then thankfully clicks.
  13. Lingod
  14. De Gea's Golden gloves.
  15. Some good press/interviews.
 

ColvaleGoa

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McTominay
The 2 Trophies
Zlatan effect. Pretty sure Martial And Rashford looked up to Zlatan, not a bad role model.

Also agree with posters above who said he took us to the Rock bottom from which the only way was up.
 

Web of Bissaka

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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.
Pretty much this.

Earlier two seasons are the only overall positives.
First season is hugely positives.
Second season is where the signs of cracks were there.
It gets worse and worse and exploded into huge disaster and laughingstock at the 3rd.
 

Champagne Football

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He had a raging hard-on for Nainggolan, Jerome Boateng and Peresic.

I think he may have sold Rashford and Martial if given the chance.

He could have left some real damage had he been given a licence to do whatever he wanted. In his first stint at Chelsea there was no FFP, so if he bought a player for 60m that he didn't like, it was fine as he was given another 60m to buy another, and at the time this was hailed as him being a genius.
 

dalriada

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He had a raging hard-on for Nainggolan, Jerome Boateng and Peresic.

I think he may have sold Rashford and Martial if given the chance.

He could have left some real damage had he been given a licence to do whatever he wanted. In his first stint at Chelsea there was no FFP, so if he bought a player for 60m that he didn't like, it was fine as he was given another 60m to buy another, and at the time this was hailed as him being a genius.
Exactly. His approach to recruitment was to go round with a cheque book buying players and fitting them into a team afterwards. The ones that didn't fit at the end were left on the bench, where they became disgruntled and future troublemakers for him. Anyone can be a genius manager that way.
At his best he was a great tactician, the rest of it has been short-term glory for long term damage.
 

Ali Dia

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I’m fairly sure Fred wasn’t his signing. I’ve seen that he was a club signing and Jose didn’t want him written a few times.

The good:
He phased Rooney out with class.
He phased out more deadwood
Zlatan/Matic
The trophies// CL football at Old Trafford again.
Giving Mc Tominay an important role
Lingard was good under him
He temporarily made the club look like it was going somewhere again.

The bad:
The football for the most part
Signing Lukaku/ Miki/ Sanchez
Throwing Fred under the bus

The ugly:
Signs Pogba for a world record and spectacularly falls out with him in public
The Seville press conference
Talking about us like we were some little club and he was doing his best with what he had been given. Pull the other one
The public negative comments about the squad while he was still here and had thrown money around the place every year.
The way he treated our youth players.
Only thinking about himself with his potential signings. Signings that would have set the club back even further in the medium term.

I was happy when we got him. I thought he was a good manager and a cool guy that the players would have to respect after LVG How wrong I was. I think it was memories of the cocky young Jose that had me fooled. After Madrid he was never the same again and his football has been crap to watch for a long time. I expect to see him leave spurs next year after a mediocre season and realising he’s going to have to develop players instead of signing ready made.

the toxic one.
 
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I believe what Moyes did could have been fixed by spending more money - our players were old, and everyone knows Fergie was overachieving in his final few seasons. Mourinho basically divided our fanbase, in addition to leaving a poor side behind.
Anyways, we'd have to agree to disagree on this
yes clearly disagree, so we will leave it there.
 

Cloud7

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The day he was sacked was the second happiest I’ve been about football since sir Alex departed.

It was a nice bit of positive emotion so I should thank him for that.
 

always_hoping

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The trophies won and a 2nd place finish, when he was confirmed as manager he brought a lot of hope and expectations but in hindsight unfortunately United got the washed up version of Jose who became even more lost when Rui Faria left his side.
 

amolbhatia50k

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Agree with this post. Mourinho had his negatives but he at least made us relevant again. Plus Zlatan will now always be a successful united player, and that's very cool
Made us relevant again. :lol:
 

flappyjay

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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.
Yeah it's weird change of narrative. He had a hand in the recruitment of Pogba but most of the forum saw it as Eds signing for shirt sales rather than footballing reasons. Fred and lindelof were said to also be club signings "Jose wouldn't sign a weak defender or small midfielder "
 

flappyjay

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My hope when we got him was that we would get a league title out of him and when he inevitably got toxic we would be left with a good squad. Boy was I wrong.

Those 2 trophies, 2nd place finish and Zlatan was his best work. Had Zlatan not got injured we probably don't spunk all that money on Lukaku.

If it wasn't for his time as manager maybe we wouldn't have changed our transfer strategy. We learned from the experience.
 

bosnian_red

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I think overall he was still important for the development of Martial and Rashford. Sometimes players need to be brought down a few pegs so they build themselves up. He knew they had potential but tried to get their mentality up there to realize it, and while he maybe didn't deal with some things in the best way, I think he was still very positive for them (and something they maybe wouldn't appreciate right away either).
Mctominay, the 2nd season, the Europa League of course, some of the signings. Nobody is without positives, and up until January of that 2nd season, he was very good for us IMO. January of 2018 until his sacking was his downfall though.
 

Rish Sawhney

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The best thing about his appointment was that we got it out of the way. I hated the last 6 months of LVG’s reign where everyone here was in love with the “serial winner” Mourinho and how he was the perfect fit for the club. Apparently counter attacking football was our DNA and possession football was dull and outdated.

Regarding his reign here, he was always a ticking time bomb and whatever good he did was coincidental at best. Zlatan kinda worked but even he massively hampered Rashford and Martial’s development by making them compete with each other instead of forming a partnership. Not to forget the weird shit he pulled with Mkhitaryan and threw him over for another shiny object at the first opportunity and benched Marital when he was just starting to come into form.

And that’s before the Sevilla press conference after which he actively decided that the club was his enemy and taking us down as much as possible was his goal.
 

0le

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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.
Agreed. It went sour in the end but it doesn't negate that he was probably our best manager since Fergie. Ole has done well in patches but he hasn't won anything and our league position doesn't lie.
 

United58

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1) The trophies.

2) The fact that the board saw a short term strategy fail so spectacularly now means we have a long term strategy with both youth signings and first team signings.

Trophies, McTom, Fred.
Not sure Fred was his buy (could be wrong here but apparently it was a Woody buy after a McKenna recommendation).
 

Damien

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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.
He wasn't played that much. I really wouldn't give Mourinho credit for Fred, especially as he only really improved under Ole.
 

Cloud7

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Yeah it's weird change of narrative. He had a hand in the recruitment of Pogba but most of the forum saw it as Eds signing for shirt sales rather than footballing reasons. Fred and lindelof were said to also be club signings "Jose wouldn't sign a weak defender or small midfielder "
If I remember correctly, any signing that didn't work out was called a club signing rather than a Jose signing, as yet another way to defend him. The only one I recall being unequivocally called a Jose signing was Ibra. The mental gymnastics our fanbase went through while he was here. My God.
 

Based Adnan

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McTominay
Some trophies albeit lesser ones
Carrick and McKenna
Fred
Lindelof

I think the biggest positive by far though is his sacking. With his sacking the board finally realized that hiring the most known manager at the time and moving from one playstyle to another will not work. Also realized throwing money at aging big names is not the way to go. Both of these things will leave us in good stead moving forward.
 

Andersons Dietician

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That he took us to such a negative and horrible place that the club seemed to realise it itself had to change its strategy.
 

Garry Buck

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The trophies he won of course. No matter what people say he has been the best manager we have had since Sir Alex retired. 2 decent trophies and 2nd place. Football was awful for the most part though.
 

criticalanalysis

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He broke us so that we could be reborn a new.
1. Took us to our rock bottom which meant that we finally had to correct our strategy in the market and now you can see that we are heading towards the right track.
That he took us to such a negative and horrible place that the club seemed to realise it itself had to change its strategy.
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.
 

wolvored

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2 Trophies. Signed/discovered Fred and McTominey, although both have had to be improved by Ole's crew. Bailly hit and miss. Thats about it really. More negatives but wont go into on this positive thread.
 

Nikelesh Reddy

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The 2 trophies,especially winning the EL was great....Finishing 2nd in the league is now looking like a great achievement....His tenure as manager was certainly not a washout,but obviously a lot more was expected of him....
 

ghagua

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Maureen's sacking was the best thing. He should have never been appointed in the first place.
 

Untd55

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- Signed Pogba (Whether you like him or not, he is our best player)
- Signed Ibrahimovic
- Signed Lindelof
- Signed Fred
- Signed Lukaku (whether you like him or not, he was not a bad signing; a bad signing is someone who does not contribute at all and loses his value. Lukaku contributed and maintained his value)

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.

- McTominay (Not a massive fan myself, but people like him on here and Mourinho did give him his debut)
- Europa League
- League Cup
- Almost won FA Cup
- Highest League Position (Oddly, people put this achievement down. Solskjaer is allowed to have practically the same team in fifth, but Mourinho was expected to win the league. I guess those people rate Mourinho very highly underneath)
- Dealt with Rooney correctly

- Sold a lot of average to poor players (people do not seem to get this) - Blind, Schweinsteiger, Schneiderlin, Depay, Januzaj, Johnstone (the ancient youth player), McNair, Keane, Blackett. He clearly wanted to get rid of Darmian and Rojo, but Darmian wasn't sold until the summer.
- Not Mourinho's fault that those players were not really worth anything.

- Carrick brought into coaching (seems to be having a positive effect on players) - made pretty much assistant manager.

- Most successful period post-Ferguson