Opinion: Unpicking Jose Mourinho's several issues at Manchester United

Writing a blog about Mourinho as a City fan seems counter-intuitive at best and just plain stupid at worst.

“Don’t give him the airtime” shout the City fans. “Don’t waste your time”. “Don’t legitimise the Reds”.

But as the season starts I find all of a sudden I have something to get off my chest about Mourinho.

Its not just because of the indifferent start Manchester United have made to the new campaign, or the achievement of finishing 2nd last season – let’s face it, Mourinho has said that achievement may be the best he has done as a manager.

Its not just because of the constant press and media coverage. Mourinho has always loved to be part of the scrum – happy to court headlines in any shape. A kind of Max Clifford approach to media management.

Its not he appears to have lost the dressing room at Manchester United as the press whispers would have us believe. That has happened with some regularity in his previous jobs before and seems to have always been the driver for his eventual demise. Clubs value success first and assets second. Without current success they will always protect the value of the asset – the players by sacrificing the manager.

It’s not just he seems to be sending his team out without any kind of coherent strategy. The display against Brighton seemed oddly devoid of leadership and drive on the pitch. But there were many performances like that last season.

Lack of interaction costing him

Mourinho may have been pictured in his tracksuit at the training ground by the official club photographers, but it is a long time since he was a tracksuit manager. The day to day coaching away from the photo opportunities seems largely dependent on others. That’s the way in the modern game – but the key difference here is that Mourinho seems so absent from training and tactical planning its almost as though he has simply picked 11 players and its up to them what they do on the pitch.

Maybe he is making a point to his wayward dressing room. Maybe he will rescue them as some kind of tactical genius later on. But all of that seems a dangerous game to play in a club as rich and heavily branded as Manchester United.

Its not just his superstar persona – with an ego so inflated he seems to have to be the biggest personality at the club.

Seemingly snuffing out challengers to his authority, not just in the dressing room but challengers to his media domination. It seems clear to all fans from reading any of the books written about great football managers that such arrogance and driven self belief is a clear ingredient in the melting pot.

There are clearly different ways and methods to motivating and engaging elite athletes, some of which will work differently at different times with different players. Like any work approach in almost any job, you have to tailor it to fit exactly to get the best out of people.

To an outsider (and to some insiders who have spoken about their interactions with Mourinho) a lot of his work with players is based around his reputation. That he knows best. That he doesn’t have to explain himself. In any avenue of life such an arrogant style of management may well deliver some initial results but its hard to sustain.

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There must be only so many times you can say to a player “you must do what I say”. These are elite expensively paid professionals. It seems clear from history that Mourinho’s power wanes and to some extent this may be part of the cause.

‘Classless’ dig at City has no substance

Its not just his continued obfuscation and diversionary powers in all of his media dealings as he seeks to set the tone and the agenda. It’s classic Mourinho to call Manchester City out as “classless” in the week they launch the Amazon documentary and to therefore dominate several days of press and TV sports coverage. It’s classic Mourinho because it all serves to divert attention away from the very real problems he seems to be having behind the scenes at Manchester United.

Its not just about money and how he seems to have set up a narrative about how he has not been backed at Manchester United in the way he wanted. Unlimited funds have not been given to him unlike the riches heaped on Guardiola by his employers. This narrative has been peddled in part by Mourinho directly, and mainly by his fervent supporters – poor Jose has only spent £400 million at Manchester United and hasn’t been able to secure the team he wanted.

Failure to build in summer ’18

Whether this whole debate is simply part of the endgame for him at Manchester United is not so clear at this moment. The lack of backing in the summer 2018 transfer market may be a reflection on exactly how much of the playing wage budget was used up on Pogba and Sanchez. It may be that after the previous Mourinho transfer dealings which have not been a success like Bailly, Darmian etc that he is no longer trusted by the club. It could be that Mourinho’s personal relationships with super agents – which seems to have been a factor in some of the recent Manchester United transfer dealings – has caused some understandable reticence, especially given the public engineering of a further transfer of Pogba by his agent Raiola.

Whatever the reason for the squad not being further strengthened the posturing about that seems part of an endgame for Mourinho. It’s an excuse for failure rather than a motivational call to his existing squad of highly paid professionals.

His style is dying out

Its not just about his tactical approach to the game of football, a technique often referred to as the antithesis of Guardiola’s open attacking play. Mourinho drills strong defensive lines, builds tall and powerful sides who seek to break up play, win the second ball and break with precision. A win from one or two attacks. Play built around an industrial model of efficiency rather than crafted of beauty.

Of course so far in England since Guardiola has arrived and attempted to transform the Premier League into a more cavalier game of open style, Mourinho has increasingly begun to stand out as a contrast.

The joyous song of the Manchester City fans from the last derby win at Old Trafford about parking the bus has seemed more and more relevant with each passing game.

Last season Mourinho’s highlight was to stop Manchester City winning the title by a week through securing a win at the Etihad. That Mourinho’s legacy seems to be about destroying and stopping rather than creating seems a sad indictment of his incredible managerial record.

No tactical developments

It’s not just that despite his defensive approach yielding limited joy he has not changed it. There have been no great tactical revisions, no going back to the drawing board, no innovation. This reluctance to change the approach seems odd and more like the often belittled Sam Allardyce.

I am unsure if its a further example of his arrogance or if he truly believes based on his record – attrition will somehow triumph. But it is this curious lack of a change of approach which is beginning to make him seem quickly dated. It will be interesting to see how Manchester United approach Chelsea under Sarri, and Klopp’s Liverpool this season. That is if Mourinho is still in charge by that stage.

The joy of football has disappeared

What I wanted to get off my chest is how so much of the joy of the game of football seems to have left him. Those open and honest good humoured interactions with players and the media seem a long time ago. Before implosions. Before Eva Carneiro.

Whether you liked the football he played at Chelsea and Porto or not, he was a breath of fresh air to a stagnant game. He upset the balance and imposed himself on the Premier League party with a newcomer funded by crass new money.

There was a spring in his step and a smile on his lips but these days he seems deeply ensconced in the Lowry Hotel, separated from his wife and family in increasing isolation. He seems like Alan Partridge in his Norwich Travelodge, clinging to glories past. Mourinho is, it seems, one step away from driving to Dundee in his bare feet eating Toblerones.

An incredible era coming to an end

Mourinho has an almost unrivalled managerial record. He has achieved 25 major honours in just 16 seasons as a manager. The trophies he has won are like a who’s who of European Football across the major leagues. Without a doubt this has been the era of Mourinho. Pep Guardiola is a relative newcomer by all accounts amassing something like 24 trophies in 11 years as a manager, but these have not been achieved across such a wide spectrum of European football as Mourinho.

His record of success is such that writing him off or writing off the chances of his team seems foolish. The issue for me is that Mourinho looks to all intents and purposes like a man whose light has gone out.

His passion seems to be gone. He looks tired and out of date. No longer the whippersnapper or upstart he once was. I am not sure he has the passion necessary to turn around his team and make them winners. If he doesn’t have the desire then the endgame has truly begun and its just a matter of when the implosion happens. Will Jose punch a ball boy? Slap a female interviewer? We don’t know how or when the implosion will happen. But we all know it will happen.

Mourinho has today been given the obligatory vote of confidence by the powers that be at Manchester United. As clear a signal as there has ever been that his time may well be up.

Mourinho’s decline greeted with sadness

As a City fan I view his decline with sadness. Sure, there is some joy in my heart that Manchester United are suffering, but I had hoped to see us best Mourinho at his peak. There’s not so much joy in it now that he’s regularly bested by Glenn Murray and Brighton.

dark. Next. Fan perspective: City 6-1 Huddersfield

I hope Mourinho is able to turn things around. And as a City fan I hope he stays at Manchester United for a very long time. A very, very long time.

Opinion: Unpicking Jose Mourinho’s issues

By David Crook | Aug 21, 2018