Ultimate United
Reality Check Needed by some United Fans 8 Nov 2017 20:23
A look at how much of the criticism levelled at José Mourinho is actually justified, and why he will probably welcome this international break.
By Philip Meese, Chief Editor
It hasn’t been the best of months for Manchester United. The international break left the Red Devils devoid of a few players, and defeats to Chelsea and Huddersfield, plus a draw at Anfield, have some fans disenchanted. José Mourinho in particular has been heavily criticised for a negative approach in certain games.
Liverpool
Forget the fact that we have missed several players through injury, apparently we are not playing the “United Way”. The Liverpool result in particular angered some fans, who claim that Alex Ferguson would never have sent a side to Anfield to play like that. Anyone who truly believes this has a very short memory, and should cast their minds back to 2007. We secured 1-0 victories there twice that year, and could have got soundly beaten both times. There were plenty of occasions under Ferguson where this actually did happen, especially in his later years. Can’t exactly blame anyone for wanting to forget the fact that Dirk Kuyt once scored a hat trick against us though.
The game in October was a shocking spectacle, with Lukaku seeing our only clear cut chance saved. But had he put that away, people would have been declaring it a Mourinho masterclass. It is disappointing that we didn’t attack more, especially given that both Liverpool’s defence and goalkeeper are hardly reliable, but it could also be said that our sloppy passing that day contributed as much to the result as did Mourinho’s bus. Even Ashley Young’s usually superb crossing deserted him that day.
The performance was not pretty, and given Liverpool’s defensive frailties, it was disappointing. Most United fans, however would take going to Anfield and not getting beat every time. The shame of actually losing to your biggest rivals does not bear thinking about.
Huddersfield
This was just an awful performance, where around five or six of our players looked like they weren’t up for it. There is no excuse for a performance like that, but from time to time it happens. It happened at least once or twice a season under Fergie, where his side would play against a team they were heavy favourites to beat, and lose miserably.
Nobody is saying it’s OK to play like they did, they are getting paid millions of pounds per year after all. But there isn’t a manager in the game that hasn’t seen his team do that at some point. The outrage from United fans that followed that defeat was probably more to do with the fact that it was on the back of such an abject display at Anfield.
Chelsea
One criticism that definitely can be levelled at Mourinho here is that maybe he got his tactics mixed up in the wrong games. At Anfield, where the performance was more conservative, he probably should have approached the game looking to attack. If Eric Bailly had been available, he might have played with the same back three formation that he adopted at Chelsea. Had he done so, he might have beat Liverpool, and nobody would have complained too much if he had parked the bus at Stamford Bridge and earned a draw.
To lose 1-0 away to the champions is hardly the worst result in the world, especially when you consider that United were still in the game right up to the last minute. A lot has been made of the performance, but the first half wasn’t too bad, and ten attempts on goal shows that it was not the bus parking bandwagon that everyone is fond of jumping on.
City
The noisy neighbours seem to be running away with the title at the moment and, make no mistake, if they keep up this level of performance into the New Year it is hard to see anyone catching them. It is, however worth remembering that plenty of teams have been “Autumn Champions” only to miss out at the end of the season. Newcastle did it in 1995-96, and we did it two years later when Arsenal overhauled us. City currently lead the table by eight points. Apparently nobody has ever overhauled a lead that big before.
The one obstacle City have yet to come across yet is an injury crisis. So far they have only lost Benjamin Mendy (you can’t count Kompany as he is injured more than Phil Jones, and most of their results this season were achieved without him). This may change as winter kicks in, and the pitches get harder, which some of their newer players may not be used to.
One of the biggest issues with United fans watching our blue rivals is how well Guardiola’s team are playing compared to ours, given that both he and Mourinho have spent heavily in the last eighteen months. But have a closer look at who their best players have been this season, ask any City fan (they’ll be only too happy to tell you). De Bruyne, Silva, Sterling, Fernandinho and the undoubtedly world class Agüero will be high up that list. All of those players were already at the club when Guardiola arrived. The main areas he needed to address were at full-back and goalkeeper, which he has done. Both Mourinho and Guardiola were tasked with taking their respective clubs to the top of English and European football. City’s manager had far less distance to travel in terms of how long it would take to make that happen. Mourinho is still having to clear up the mess of his predecessors.
You can’t even guarantee success by spending money anymore, because everyone is doing it. Look at what Everton spent in the summer, almost £135 million. They have just sacked their manager because they are facing a relegation battle. We are in second place with a quarter of the season gone, despite taking just four points from our last twelve. What a disaster. Since Ferguson retired in 2013, we have made the top four once, and only got into the Champions League through the back door last season. Whichever way you look at it, we have improved.
International Break
Normally when the Premier League fixtures are disrupted for the International break, both United’s fans and manager become disgruntled. The last one was a particular source of annoyance to Mourinho, as Bailly and Fellaini came back injured; the latter only came back on Sunday.
It is very possible, however, that Mourinho will welcome the break this time around. Chris Smalling and Ander Herrera have not been selected, so less chance of them joined United’s walking wounded. It also gives Paul Pogba, and possibly Marcos Rojo and Zlatan Ibrahimovi?, an extra two weeks to work on getting back to fitness. All of them have been sorely missed in recent weeks, and it can’t be much of a coincidence that Lukaku’s goal drought came as soon as Pogba was absent. When his mate gets back, perhaps he’ll get some service.
Positive Results
Judging by some of the tripe you read on social media, anyone would think United haven’t won for weeks. They have played seven games since the last internationals, and won four of them. While they have lost ground in the title race, they have practically assured qualification to the knockout phase of the Champions League after beating Benfica twice, and are through to the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup after an easy win over Swansea City.
The performance in Lisbon wasn’t pretty, with the mistake of an 18 year old goalkeeper gifting United the victory. He didn’t have much luck in the return leg either, as Mati?’s rebounded shot forced him into an unorthodox own-goal. This actually saw him draw level with Alex Stepney as United’s highest ever scoring goalkeeper.
Many will be quick to point out that we wouldn’t have beaten Tottenham had Harry Kane been available, and it is a fair point. Perhaps Liverpool wouldn’t have got a draw if Pogba had been fit, and maybe the Chelsea result would have been different. You can play that game all day long. The fact is that we beat one of the best teams in the Premier League, with is no mean feat considering the “crisis” we currently find ourselves in.
The United Way
The United Way is kind of a myth in many respects. But the trouble with fans of all clubs when comparing the present to the “glorious” past is that it makes them go all misty eyed. They forget that, even in their greatest eras, all of those teams had patches like the one United have had recently.
There is no doubt that under Ferguson, United played a fast-paced, entertaining brand of football with was sometimes breath-taking. But that wasn’t always the case under him. Remember the years between 2003 and 2006, when United got nowhere near the title? The team was in transition at the time, and they were sometimes awful to watch.
In the last ten years, the only time United have gone to Anfield and took the game to them was in 2015, when Louis van Gaal was in charge. In the final 6 or 7 years of Ferguson’s reign, United were poor when playing Liverpool away; even when they won. Look at our recent record at Chelsea. In the last 15 years we have won twice at Stamford Bridge, and only one of those was in the Premier League (even that was helped by some seriously dodgy refereeing).
Nobody can rubbish what Alex Ferguson achieved at Old Trafford, he is the greatest manager of all time. But the way some people have reacted to some of our recent results, you would think that every game Ferguson took charge of was easy on the eye. As though we were great to watch even when we got thrashed, and it’s just not true. There were plenty of games, even during our most successful seasons, where we scraped a win after being painful to watch for ninety minutes.
Final Thought
Just because we have had a few drab performances lately, this does not mean that Mourinho isn’t the right man for the job. Six weeks ago, when we were regularly scoring four goals in games, José apparently had us “playing the way that United should”.
The unfortunate truth is that many people will only judge Manchester United on what is right in front of them. This is because while they harp on as though everything was rosy in the past, they are incapable, or just point blank refuse, to look at the bigger picture.
With the money that is flowing through the English game right now, it is hardly likely that anyone will dominate English football, the way the Red Devils did in the 1990’s, ever again. But anyone who claims to be a United fan should get behind the team, get behind the manager, and stop complaining that things aren’t like they were in the good old days. Whenever we have a game that is boring to watch, remember that we had games like that under Ferguson, Atkinson and Docherty. Even Sir Matt Busby didn’t wow the crowds every time his teams took to the pitch.
We don’t have a divine right to win every trophy with scintillating, entertaining football. After the last few years, we should be grateful that we are in the position we are in; with a manager who has proved he knows how to win the top prizes in world football. It could be worse: we could be West Ham fans right now.
2009 League Cup Final