Mourinho comments about our season to L'Equipe

MrPooni

New Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2012
Messages
2,423
On finishing 2nd with this squad:
"I said 9 or 10 months ago that after winning 8 Championships, finishing second with United may have been my greatest achievement. Now people understand.”
Click to expand...
On the PSG comeback:
“This victory is a little out of context, even if we had won in Turin in the group stage. In Paris, I think I know a little the reasons, tactics and mental.”

"The elimination of PSG I think I know the reasons, but I do not always do my analysis publicly on Manchester United. I do not want to talk about it and I have the feeling that I do not need to speak, that time gives explanations.”
Click to expand...

The problems are still there:
“About Manchester United, I want to say only two things. One is that time has spoken. Two is that the problems are still there.”
Click to expand...
On Martial's potential:
“Martial? He's a boy with a different personality (than Benzema), and the thing I can say is that I hope he's going to reach a dimension that is as good as his real potential."
Click to expand...
On whether he was driven out by Pogba specifically:
“Was I a victim of Pogba? No. The problems are there, you can imagine that the problems are the players, the organisation, the ambition, I only say that I can not say yes when you ask if Paul was the only one responsible.”
Click to expand...

I think the implication around the PSG result is that Jose thinks we performed that way because Pogba was unavailable. Besides that I don't think you can really argue with anything he's saying to be fair.
 
Last edited:
Nothing scathing IMV. And I believe it's probably true what he's saying. Time has proved him right. We had a blip of good form. He could have done better himself for sure, but we don't know the full story there.
 
I'm assuming he means the combo of Pogba, Lingard, Martial etc. that seemed tight together being the core of this team but not driving the team forward anywhere other than maybe new haircuts on Instagram or dance moves (Mourinho's point of view)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Cheimoon
MrPooni said:
I think the implication around the PSG result is that Jose thinks we performed that way because Pogba was unavailable.
Click to expand...

I believe so too. But also equally importantly his godchild Matic wasn’t there.
 
Nothing wrong with what he said there. In terms of "his best ever achievement", I think he might mean it in a different way, but it was overperformance. Like based on our performance levels we probably should've been 5th or 6th but we were clinical and De Gea was godly to the extent that we somehow grinded out 81 points. So in that sense, getting points more than the level of what your team played at, then yeah it was an achievement. My issue with that is that a lot of the team being the way it is now was his fault IMO. Not fully, but a big part.

On PSG, dont think he's talking about Pogba. Think it's just speaking about PSG mentality players, combined with a lot of luck on our side.
 
Our players couldn't even be bothered to prove him wrong.
 
i hope he gets employed soon. maybe these interviews will stop. hopefully.
 
Spend the 2nd highest budget. Finish 2nd. 19 points off the 1st . Great achievement Mourinho!!
 
MrPooni said:
I think the implication around the PSG result is that Jose thinks we performed that way because Pogba was unavailable
Click to expand...

people act as if we had an amazing performance in that game, as if PSG wasn't doing flicks and keep-ups throughout the game and we didn't need a controversial VAR decision to go through. but sure, it was Pogba not being there that made the difference :lol:
 
He's finished at the top and he's in denial about it. But this interview was not as bitter and childish as his usual interviews. Sounds like he's at peace with himself now that we are doing so badly
 
We we're lucky in many ways against PSG and they were underestimating us. Had nothing to do with Pogba.
 
TsuWave said:
people act as if we had an amazing performance in that game, as if PSG wasn't doing flicks and keep-ups throughout the game and we didn't need a controversial VAR decision to go through. but sure, it was Pogba not being there that made the difference :lol:
Click to expand...

I don't think he's insinuating that it's just one specific thing. But remembering that game, I can't think of more high intensity midfield performances all season than Fred and McTominay in that game. If that was our regular standard, we'd be in far better shape.
 
abdo99 said:
Spend the 2nd highest budget. Finish 2nd. 19 points off the 1st . Great achievement Mourinho!!
Click to expand...

Narrow minded. Look at the entire context of this club in its current state. If you think this has to do with just a transfer budget you are naive.
 
Bastian said:
remembering that game, I can't think of more high intensity midfield performances all season than Fred and McTominay in that game. If that was our regular standard, we'd be in far better shape.
Click to expand...

you need to watch that match again then
 
Bastian said:
I don't think he's insinuating that it's just one specific thing. But remembering that game, I can't think of more high intensity midfield performances all season than Fred and McTominay in that game. If that was our regular standard, we'd be in far better shape.
Click to expand...

Well, Fred hardly played under Mourinho either - so what's the explanation there?

Jose might be technically right about how poorly run United are, but he has to take much of the blame for this season.
 
It's the ambitions part that worries me most, and I don't mean the players. What if, and this is just a what if, Glazers/Woodward were more than happy with 2nd place and didn't want to continue investing heavy cash. We did only net spend around 30M? after becoming runner-ups

I'm Glad Jose is gone, he was poisonous in the end but I can't shake the feeling that the "bust up" between him and Woodward was about investment and not about loss of faith.
 
What a guy hey? Gets paid 20 million to leave a burning house and then goes on to make a job out of ‘I told you so’ proving everyone wrong. He’s a serial winner
 
Eric7C said:
Well, Fred hardly played under Mourinho either - so what's the explanation there?

Jose might be technically right about how poorly run United are, but he has to take much of the blame for this season.
Click to expand...

The point not being about specific players, per se, but attitude. My guess is he feels that attitude of the team was poor and he couldn't bring in players he felt would change that. Which is not the same as absolving him from all blame.

All the players we have can give much more. I can't remember any players consistently seeming to give their all bar McTominay, Ander and Rashford.
 
Quite restrained comments.

For all the problems he brought to the table himself (and he did bring a lot), he's right in saying that time has spoken. Clearly the problems ran far beyond him and the brief period of excellent form following his departure was the real outlier.
 
WR10 said:
What a guy hey? Gets paid 20 million to leave a burning house and then goes on to make a job out of ‘I told you so’ proving everyone wrong. He’s a serial winner
Click to expand...

:lol:

When you put it like that, it's quite hilarious. But what would you have him say? He's been ridiculed all over for having been a dinosaur, a has-been shite manager, and then when the team shows its true colours and the scatterbrained approach of our board is exposed, is he supposed to say something different to what he's been saying all along? He still has the ambition to work at the highest level and he will fight to do so. No problem with that IMV.
 
MrPooni said:
I think the implication around the PSG result is that Jose thinks we performed that way because Pogba was unavailable. Besides that I don't think you can really argue with anything he's saying to be fair.
Click to expand...

So to be clear, he's saying this squad. A squad he had massive input on, that finished second, was his biggest achievement? What a loser this guy is.
 
Bastian said:
:lol:

When you put it like that, it's quite hilarious. But what would you have him say? He's been ridiculed all over for having been a dinosaur, a has-been shite manager, and then when the team shows its true colours and the scatterbrained approach of our board is exposed, is he supposed to say something different to what he's been saying all along? He still has the ambition to work at the highest level and he will fight to do so. No problem with that IMV.
Click to expand...

You're correct but it also means people will call him out on it and offer the other context, which is despite whatever he says he was still sh|te here. Nothing can change that.
 
WR10 said:
What a guy hey? Gets paid 20 million to leave a burning house and then goes on to make a job out of ‘I told you so’ proving everyone wrong. He’s a serial winner
Click to expand...

Are you really surprised by that? He's eaten so much shite from the media around the world for the horrendous job he's done, that now OGS is going through the same thing there was no way he was going to remain quiet about that.
 
Agendas, agendas everywhere. Jose could say water was wet and there would be an uprising against that opinion. He’s been gone for a long time now and still people refuse to admit the issues are far, far deeper than the manager.
 
criticalanalysis said:
You're correct but it also means people will call him out on it and offer the other context, which is despite whatever he says he was still sh|te here. Nothing can change that.
Click to expand...

Yeah, speaking of context. The first two seasons were, in my opinion, the most progress the team showed post SAF. He wasn't brilliant, but he was better than Moyes and LVG. And as we know, it's a complicated job due to many factors. Won two finals of three. Achieved a decent points tally last season and league finish.

Money could definitely have been spent better, but like I said earlier, we don't know the full story there. The last two managers have been very critical of the structure and hierarchy. Now it seems the rest of the world is wise to that. It doesn't mean they did not make mistakes, but it puts things into context.
 
haram said:
Narrow minded. Look at the entire context of this club in its current state. If you think this has to do with just a transfer budget you are naive.
Click to expand...
Mourinho was a disaster for United. Nothing that happened before or after him will change this.
 
abdo99 said:
Mourinho was a disaster for United. Nothing that happened before or after him will change this.
Click to expand...

The club is a disaster before and after him whatever way you want to look at it. If you think this is down to Jose you are deluded. It's in front of our faces.
 
Denis79 said:
It's the ambitions part that worries me most, and I don't mean the players. What if, and this is just a what if, Glazers/Woodward were more than happy with 2nd place and didn't want to continue investing heavy cash. We did only net spend around 30M? after becoming runner-ups

I'm Glad Jose is gone, he was poisonous in the end but I can't shake the feeling that the "bust up" between him and Woodward was about investment and not about loss of faith.
Click to expand...

During the winter they gave out one of the biggest contracts ever to Sanchez.
 
I'm sure there's plenty of truth to it. He surely had the power to implement better transfer strategy though.
 
Bastian said:
Yeah, speaking of context. The first two seasons were, in my opinion, the most progress the team showed post SAF. He wasn't brilliant, but he was better than Moyes and LVG. And as we know, it's a complicated job due to many factors. Won two finals of three. Achieved a decent points tally last season and league finish.

Money could definitely have been spent better, but like I said earlier, we don't know the full story there. The last two managers have been very critical of the structure and hierarchy. Now it seems the rest of the world is wise to that. It doesn't mean they did not make mistakes, but it puts things into context.
Click to expand...

My belief is that Moyes, LVG, Mourinho, Woodward and the players have all been sh|te in their own ways but I still feel the majority of the buck starts with the manager. A good manager should be able to get the team playing cohesive, progressive and proactive football despite the circumstances off the pitch. Or at least a semblance of it. Obviously that doesn't mean good results and possible even worse than we have 'achieved' these past 6 seasons but that gives something to build on (1 step back, 2 forward blah blah). Some one needs to come with the simplicity and balls saying 'this is the way we play, end of' and actually enforce that. The way I have seen Klopp, Poch, Conte, Emery and Sarri did or have done regardless the immediate outcome.

In their own ways and perhaps even with what we've seen with the current coaching set up, none have shown the charisma, coaching ability or decisiveness to actually take it on and do it.

Until then, my view is that anything that anyone says from our past or current set up will be met with 'you simply didn't do enough on your own part'.

The best example of professionalism and pure concentration is what Poch has done with Spurs this season. He easily could have done a Mourinho/Conte but he bit his tongue and remained fully focused on the task, which is maximise the ability of his 11 football players on the pitch. It totally makes sense why he showed so much emotion after the Ajax game and his subsequent comments pretty much saying 'I've done a f*cking good job, now back me in the summer or forget this happening again/I'm leaving'.
 
haram said:
The club is a disaster before and after him whatever way you want to look at it. If you think this is down to Jose you are deluded. It's in front of our faces.
Click to expand...

The club is in a bad state at the moment there is no denying that but the players Jose bought on his watch are on par or if not worse than what we already had. He failed miserably all on his own.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.