Jose Mourinho | 2017/18 Assessments | Poll Added

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Literally how can you say that?
Seems you don't even agree that we are building (albeit slowly) in the right direction?
Why highlight only this part when the whole statement was "we have been showing no signs of improvement since the City defeat"? Overall, we are showing some signs of development, but in my opinion it is mostly due to buying world-class players and spending fortunes on their acquisitions.
 
Literally how can you say that?
Seems you don't even agree that we are building (albeit slowly) in the right direction?
He did say since the City game... but looking at this season as a whole compared to last.. We are only 4 points better off after 27 games compared to last season. Less draws, more defeats, probably worse performances. Also last season we were about to win the league cup, a competition we lost to a 2nd division side this season. Further in the FA cup since we avoided a big team so far. But generally I can't point to a huge improvement apart from position in the table which is largely due to others slipping more so then us improving to a great degree. We have a better squad compared to last season on paper, but it's barely made a difference. The first 2 months of the season you can point to improvement. Been pretty shit since then though.
 
I don’t think they’ll sack him if he finishes outside the top 4. LVG was probably only given the boot due to the availability of Jose and there doesn’t seem to be any stand out option available at the moment except possibly Ancelotti. If he was to go then yeah i’d push for Poch but I can’t see him leaving Spurs this season as they move in to a new stadium.
LVG was sacked mainly because of poor style of play so this does prove that the board are well aware of fans discontent.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/36364883

Mr Ian Stirling from the United supporters trust even expressed his concerns that we were going to hire Mourinho because he's similar to LVG! Even he knows that Mourinho is the last manager to go for if you want exciting attacking football. If the board wanted stability after LVG he was a good choice but if they wanted someone who was going to improve our style of play then they were wrong. Mourinho isn't doing any better on that front and if he finishes out of the top 4 he has to go.
 
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Our attacking talents will be wasted if JM doesnt find the right formula to make it works as a unit.

Based on Sanchez transfer effect to the current set up that make Pogba, Martial, Rashford and Lingard become a bit part player, im affraid adding another attacker like Griezman, Mahrez or Bailey wont become a sollution to this problem, it just will add more problem to the team.

Thats why i think the problem its not all about the player but its the approach that make this talent wasted.
 
LVG was sacked mainly because of poor style of play so this does prove that the board are well aware of fans discontent.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/36364883

Mr Ian Stirling from the United supporters trust even expressed his concerns that we were going to hire Mourinho because he's similar to LVG! Even he knows that Mourinho is the last manager to go for if you want exciting attacking football. If the board wanted stability after LVG he was a good choice but if they wanted someone who was going to improve our style of play then they were wrong. Mourinho isn't doing any better on that front and if he finishes out of the top 4 he has to go.
Article is just an opinion piece, although if it was due to style then why hire Jose.

I think it was more as I said, Jose was available, if he wasn’t then I’d imagine LVG would have continued on another year, that’s just my opinion.
 
Literally how can you say that?
Seems you don't even agree that we are building (albeit slowly) in the right direction?
Are we though? Yes we are currently 2nd, but the next month will really define our season. We could end up being 4/5th easily if we don't buck up our ideas.

We started the season well but things seem to be going backwards.
 
Are we though? Yes we are currently 2nd, but the next month will really define our season. We could end up being 4/5th easily if we don't buck up our ideas.

We started the season well but things seem to be going backwards.

Likewise, we can secure 2nd, go far in the CL and maybe win a trophy (FA Cup). It's a bit alarming that Jose is questioning his backroom staff publicly (again) and he seems to not know how to fit Sanchez into the side. Hope he sorts things out sharpish. Still definitely support him, and I don't see any other candidate nor do I think the constant overhaul does us any favours. Just prolongs the chaos and the stay-of-execution for players that Jose is yet to ship out.
 
As the proverb says, trouble comes in three, we have multiple injuries/niggles, players are out of form and our budding midfield general is throwing a strop. Mourinho has to play fire fighter, psychologist and supreme tactician to escape unscathed. It's a tough time but I am hopeful that Mourinho will prove why he is one of the all-time greats.
 
NO he have been terrible so far. We may be in 2nd position but our football has been pathetic. Jose does not know what he is doing now. It is worse than a Sunday league pub side. Players could not pass to each other and they do not seem to know what they are doing. Our free kicks are terrible and no planning or practice seem to have taken place. We have one of the tallest sides yet we can get a proper corner in or a free kick into the box.
 
NO he have been terrible so far. We may be in 2nd position but our football has been pathetic. Jose does not know what he is doing now. It is worse than a Sunday league pub side. Players could not pass to each other and they do not seem to know what they are doing. Our free kicks are terrible and no planning or practice seem to have taken place. We have one of the tallest sides yet we can get a proper corner in or a free kick into the box.
I don't understand what can Mourinho really build in the long run. He has never done that in his whole career and everything has been centered about instant success, no matter the style of football or the players that are present in the squad.

The only cup of note we have won is the Europa League so far, we have a long way to go to the FA cup final and we are very far away from wining the EPL or CL. Not sure Jose is the manager who I would trust to rebuild anything in the next 3 years.
 
I give you Moyes probably just a bad manager, but LVG/Mourinho aren't stupid chumps, if they can't make us work then IMHO there's something wrong it's more than simply them not being told to attack.
There is one other thing that is common between them, neither of them are coaches anymore, they delegate that to their assistants. LvG openly said that he takes no part in coaching players and Mourinho was never really a coach to begin with.

Put mourinho managing City he'll show some attacking flair, but put pep in our current squad we will probably be served with the same shite of disjointed football. Swap Mourinho with Zidane/Klopp/Pochetinno and he'll have a capable working squad while the swapee will look clueless managing our squad.
Absolutely disagree. if Mourinho was at City, he'd probably have turned Sterling into a RB by now.

Take the Spurs example, they were an utter mess after Bale left and Levy bought in a bunch of players with the Bale cash, they were just as disjointed as we are now, they had fecking Tactics Tim as a manager, look how they have transformed. That is the work of a good coach. Liverpool may not win anything but their team absolutely resembles and plays how their coach wants them to.
 
I don't understand what can Mourinho really build in the long run. He has never done that in his whole career and everything has been centered about instant success, no matter the style of football or the players that are present in the squad.

The only cup of note we have won is the Europa League so far, we have a long way to go to the FA cup final and we are very far away from wining the EPL or CL. Not sure Jose is the manager who I would trust to rebuild anything in the next 3 years.

I accept now that he has taken us as far as he can for now. Pep has put the bar so high. He is no SAF who can change his approach. It is time that the Board also look at other alternatives. What surprises me is that all players have a price and we pay over 90 million odd to buy a player yet we cannot pay even close to that to get a good manager?
 
NO he have been terrible so far. We may be in 2nd position but our football has been pathetic. Jose does not know what he is doing now. It is worse than a Sunday league pub side. Players could not pass to each other and they do not seem to know what they are doing. Our free kicks are terrible and no planning or practice seem to have taken place. We have one of the tallest sides yet we can get a proper corner in or a free kick into the box.

To say this is an overreaction is an understatement of some proportions. We aren't 2nd in the league because we play worse than an amateur side, come on. Did we fluke our way into 2nd? He's got some major causes for concern at the moment, the most pressing is probably fitting in Sanchez without derailing the rest of our attack. He's got to somehow get Pogba's head back in the game. He's probably hoping that his best defenders can keep injury free for the business end of the season that has now begun.

He took over a team that was bereft of any confidence, had completely lost its fear factor and failed to attract the best players. Objectively, last season was an undoubted success comparative to where we were and realistic expectations. This season has presented its own problems, but he's still building on last season's success.

Fair enough if people don't like the style of play. Often, I don't either. Maybe I'm blinkered in my view here, but I expect our style of play to improve once our foundations are there. Mind, the start of the season wasn't bad in terms of fluidity and style. It's just a complex project. Some people seem to think that an attack-minded coach would just come in and we'd be back to some romantic swashbuckling era..
 
I accept now that he has taken us as far as he can for now. Pep has put the bar so high. He is no SAF who can change his approach. It is time that the Board also look at other alternatives. What surprises me is that all players have a price and we pay over 90 million odd to buy a player yet we cannot pay even close to that to get a good manager?

I am pissed off with the performances of recent weeks, but jeez, this is a bit premature. He has only been with us for 1.5 seasons and there have been glimpses of good stuff as well.

Criticize him, but it is too soon to write him off or call for his head.
 
Rubbish football. Here we were thinking we'd get to see some exciting football with Pogba, Sanchez and Martial. Instead Jose decides to challenge the idea of football being something that can entertain you, decides to play archaic hard working zero flair football with a maximum of one exciting attacker alllowed to start.

Dreadful stuff.
 
I dont understand what you guys expected? Mouriniho teams have always played awful but effective football, everyone knew it when he was hired, every club knows it when they appoint him.
 
The only way I would welcome such football is if it ends up winning the Champions league which we obviously won't. I knew Mourinho would introduce different football but the last two months have been diabolical to watch and the results have equally suffered. Time to feckin sort it out Mou !
 
The only way I would welcome such football is if it ends up winning the Champions league which we obviously won't. I knew Mourinho would introduce different football but the last two months have been diabolical to watch and the results have equally suffered. Time to feckin sort it out Mou !
I'd love to see us putting together a proper attacking team even if we take our time over it. Were not winning anything major this year anyway. Instead we'll bore the brains off everyone for the dream scenario of an FA cup win.
 
So far, we were heading into right direction. For me, when Jose took the job, the most challenging aspect of the job was there was a big discrepancy between the ability of the team and the expectations. After taking the job, he has improved us vastly, made us way better, and made some excellent signings. Now, if we look at our squad, there is a decent group, although there are few shortcomings and some players are overrated too.

But now, in recent games, there is certainly a concern regarding our performances. I do not care if we are still getting result, but looks like performances are bad and so are results, thats concerning. LVG did a good job in his first year, at least that's what i think, but on his second year, he failed to make any progress and we actually regressed. I am hopeful that it is not the case with Jose. I understand that we are still at our rebuilding process, but we cannot keep swinging back and forth.

I desperately wanted us to sign Sanchez, but if the decision was to play him in his favored LW position, that is piling up players in one position while ignoring other more immediate neccesities in the team. Martial and Rashford are much more limited than Sanchez, and hence it makes more sense to try Sanchez in number 10/RW position. I also could not make sense of signing Lindelof, if we were not going to play 3 at the back.

But ONe thing very good about Jose is, when things are not working well, he sees it and makes changes. Yes, he has pragmatic style which he does not let go, but other than that, he sees things if it is not working out and fixes it.
 
To say this is an overreaction is an understatement of some proportions. We aren't 2nd in the league because we play worse than an amateur side, come on. Did we fluke our way into 2nd? He's got some major causes for concern at the moment, the most pressing is probably fitting in Sanchez without derailing the rest of our attack. He's got to somehow get Pogba's head back in the game. He's probably hoping that his best defenders can keep injury free for the business end of the season that has now begun.

He took over a team that was bereft of any confidence, had completely lost its fear factor and failed to attract the best players. Objectively, last season was an undoubted success comparative to where we were and realistic expectations. This season has presented its own problems, but he's still building on last season's success.

Fair enough if people don't like the style of play. Often, I don't either. Maybe I'm blinkered in my view here, but I expect our style of play to improve once our foundations are there. Mind, the start of the season wasn't bad in terms of fluidity and style. It's just a complex project. Some people seem to think that an attack-minded coach would just come in and we'd be back to some romantic swashbuckling era..
If we stay second then I will accept that that is progress , even if it has taken a return to uninspired, functional and safety first football to achieve it. I would have hoped for much better after the money that has been spent......but what if we don't get second?

The team that you describe 2 years ago had just won the FA cup so maybe the lack of confidence you describe is much exaggerated.
The style of play of LVG had got so terrible that any change was going to seem so much better, however at the moment i can see what Jose's plan or style is and we are in danger of going backwards very quickly unless he can find a solution.
 
If we stay second then I will accept that that is progress , even if it has taken a return to uninspired, functional and safety first football to achieve it. I would have hoped for much better after the money that has been spent......but what if we don't get second?

The team that you describe 2 years ago had just won the FA cup so maybe the lack of confidence you describe is much exaggerated.
The style of play of LVG had got so terrible that any change was going to seem so much better, however at the moment i can see what Jose's plan or style is and we are in danger of going backwards very quickly unless he can find a solution.

If we drop out of the top 4 and leave the CL early then we have a bit of a nightmare scenario and I'd worry that we'd go chopping and changing again with no certainty of getting it right. I do not think that will happen, but yes, we still seem to lack an identity and we are far from fluid and quick in attack. I think Jose has found that he doesn't really trust his defenders bar Bailly. Lindelof is decent, but probably not as good as was hoped. When your foundation is lacking in that sense, other parts of your game will be affected. He's talked about the 433 recently, and @deafepl said yesterday that Jose talked about 532 in the past (I didn't know that). That hints at quite significant changes IMV.

I do think Jose needs to stop criticising his staff and players publicly and try to generate some fight and positivity. But he's a manager who knows how to win and I think that will show in the coming weeks and months. A win against Chelsea would certainly change the mood on the Caf.
 
If we drop out of the top 4 and leave the CL early then we have a bit of a nightmare scenario and I'd worry that we'd go chopping and changing again with no certainty of getting it right. I do not think that will happen, but yes, we still seem to lack an identity and we are far from fluid and quick in attack. I think Jose has found that he doesn't really trust his defenders bar Bailly. Lindelof is decent, but probably not as good as was hoped. When your foundation is lacking in that sense, other parts of your game will be affected. He's talked about the 433 recently, and @deafepl said yesterday that Jose talked about 532 in the past (I didn't know that). That hints at quite significant changes IMV.

I do think Jose needs to stop criticising his staff and players publicly and try to generate some fight and positivity. But he's a manager who knows how to win and I think that will show in the coming weeks and months. A win against Chelsea would certainly change the mood on the Caf.
I agree with the last bit, the Chelsea game is huge now, another non performance and a loss and the momentum swings big time. There was no doubt that Jose was the big game specialist for many years,getting results when it really matters. Let's hope he can return to that over the next few weeks, I am not confident but hope to be proved wrong.

Jose deflects onto players and fans when things are not going well that is not ever going to change.
 
Granted that the exhibition was poor - by the United standards - 0-0 has to be considered a good result. It´s nuts that some people are saying that it was better to lose 2-1 then draw 0-0. Any win at home, including a 2-1 win will mean qualification for United.

Basicly the 0-0 assures that United will have the chance to decide the tie in front of their fans and any win by any margin will mean qualification - even a 0-0 would mean another 30 minutes at home to try and beat Sevilha.

Sevilha are a very solid team with a lot of european experience - they manage to draw the two games with Liverpool - and only lost once at home during the whole season.

Lets keep things in perspective: United is currently second in the premier league, still in a shout of winning the cup and a home game way of reaching the best 8 teams in Europe - this after a season where you manage to win two cups (three if you count the Super Cup).
 
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It is not the way Seville played that is the issue. It is the way we played. We lost possession under no pressure, we could not string a couple of passes. We just hoofed it up. It was all 11 players wearing the same colour on the pitch but playing individually. It is not the result that is the issue here. If we had played a good game and still got 0-0 I would have been happy. If the other team forced us to defend and we did not concede then I would have been poor. No we were piss poor under no pressure. We did not have any tactics apart from hoofing the ball up.
 
It is not the way Seville played that is the issue. It is the way we played. We lost possession under no pressure, we could not string a couple of passes. We just hoofed it up. It was all 11 players wearing the same colour on the pitch but playing individually. It is not the result that is the issue here. If we had played a good game and still got 0-0 I would have been happy. If the other team forced us to defend and we did not concede then I would have been poor. No we were piss poor under no pressure. We did not have any tactics apart from hoofing the ball up.

Whether or not that's an accurate assessment you extrapolate from that performance a view to generalise about the whole season. I get the frustration with the performance last night, I felt frustrated myself, but it doesn't mean the whole season we've been clueless and dirt poor.
 
2 years
Is this the kind of football we as fans expecting after 2 years under this manager? Im not talking about Seville. Newcastle, Hudersfield, Tottenham, Liverpool, city, Chelsea, Brighton, Southampton, etc etc.. games were we produced the worst kind of football. Our goalkeeper is up there with relegation teams keepers in the number of saves made in the EPL. It is a disgrace to a club in the size, prestige and the history of Manchester united.
 
It was bad, I’m not sure what’s going on. This obviously isn’t Mourinho’s standard of football, this isn’t how he wants us to play. We look so low on confidence, and tactics aside, the players aren’t performing either. I think it’s a complex issue beyond “Mourinho = bad manager”. My only concern is that he tends to start falling out with players once things get rough, and once that happens it’s hard to ever recover without someone leaving.
 
“Can Manchester United score? They always score…”

Not with Jose here, not anymore... :(
 
What people need to ask themselves (more so the owners/chairman) is would you trust Jose with another £250m of the clubs money? Would you be convinced if you gave him these funds to spend, United would be at the very top/playing fantastic football etc.

If the answer is no to any of the above questions, then Jose's position as 'manager' needs to be looked at, because if you do give him another £250m to spend and then sack him another manager will come in with different ideas and and will want to spend again (£250m-£350m) to shape the squad to their own taste.

Me personally I was a fan of Jose Mourinho 10 years ago, but not anymore, either he's lost his touch or football's moved on, the guys charisma has gone both on and off the pitch.

His press conferences used to be a must watch years ago for the lolz, now they are just depressing.
 
What people need to ask themselves (more so the owners/chairman) is would you trust Jose with another £250m of the clubs money? Would you be convinced if you gave him these funds to spend, United would be at the very top/playing fantastic football etc.

If the answer is no to any of the above questions, then Jose's position as 'manager' needs to be looked at, because if you do give him another £250m to spend and then sack him another manager will come in with different ideas and and will want to spend again (£250m-£350m) to shape the squad to their own style.

Me personally I was a fan of Jose Mourinho 10 years ago, but not anymore, either he's lost his touch or football's moved on and the guys charisma as gone both on and off the pitch. His press conferences used to be a must watch years ago for the lolz (quick wit/winding managers up), now they are just depressing.

The owners/chairman have already made that decisions. They are giving him one more season to impress (since his extension was 1 year). I suspect that if we arent better next season then he will be sacked. Obviously if the team capitulates this season he'll probably be sacked but Chelsea have been doing their usual meltdown after winning the league season.
 
What people need to ask themselves (more so the owners/chairman) is would you trust Jose with another £250m of the clubs money? Would you be convinced if you gave him these funds to spend, United would be at the very top/playing fantastic football etc.


It's not about how much we can spend now; any manager of a top club in any league at the moment would be given similar funding.

People / posters have been laughed out of threads for suggesting that a (hypothesised) exodus of fans is not an issue, as those that are leaving are fair-weather, or glory hunters. But the newest generation of fans in many cases come from our most-recent success. i.e. 1992 and on. And our financil success relies on those fans.

We have to play visually-appealing, winning football to maintain our place as the highest-earning team. We've got sponsorships other teams can only dream of (and I really mean the tractors and noodles here!), but without those seemingly pointless deals, we'd be financially fecked in the age of oil magnates and states owning clubs. But those sponsors exist only because we drag the punters in. We drag the glory-hunters in. The fair-weather fans in. Without them, we're fecked and the only way to keep them is to play entertaining football.

It's not about winning. It's about having the most fans.
 
It's not about how much we can spend now; any manager of a top club in any league at the moment would be given similar funding.

People / posters have been laughed out of threads for suggesting that a (hypothesised) exodus of fans is not an issue, as those that are leaving are fair-weather, or glory hunters. But the newest generation of fans in many cases come from our most-recent success. i.e. 1992 and on. And our financil success relies on those fans.

We have to play visually-appealing, winning football to maintain our place as the highest-earning team. We've got sponsorships other teams can only dream of (and I really mean the tractors and noodles here!), but without those seemingly pointless deals, we'd be financially fecked in the age of oil magnates and states owning clubs. But those sponsors exist only because we drag the punters in. We drag the glory-hunters in. The fair-weather fans in. Without them, we're fecked and the only way to keep them is to play entertaining football.

It's not about winning. It's about having the most fans.

Yeah i agree, glory hunters get slammed but they bring a lot of money in and as you say many kids today, Manchester United isn't the club of choice to support for 'glory'.

I live like 40 miles away from Manchester and growing up in the 90's never saw any Chelsea/City fans around where i live, was always United/Liverpool or local teams, nowadays more tend to support City or Chelsea over United.

Oversea's lack of United fans is probably drying up even more so, i suspect kids today living in America/Asia/Australia, not many will watch TV and imprint on this Manchester United team and follow them into adulthood, it will be Madrid/Barcelona/City.
 
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He is just not that good anymore, those thinking otherwise are just clutching straws. There is no vision on how he wants the team to play, players are not improving and he has begin to pick fights.
Technically we are one of the worst big teams, and you hear people trying to justify how poor we are on the quality of players who where actually quite good in their previous teams.
The game has moved on and has left our manager behind.
 
Especially ridiculous because both managers had a hand in shaping their respective teams. For example Pep would never buy Lukaku for any price

Pep would never have fullbacks as limited as Young and Valencia either which Jose is cool with, people here are beginning to make it sound like this team was forced on Jose and he's had no power to change it.
 
At this point I can't wait for him to leave. He can't even do what he used to do well, well. Our bus is shaky at best whenever it's parked. When we bother to play, we get outplayed. None of our attackers are enjoying themselves. Our midfielders get outplayed by players that were acquired at the fraction of their cost. The work rate of the side is horrendous. We can't ever seem to take the game to the opposition. Our closing down is non existent. Our technically limited striker is having to receive fight balls throughout the game without a soul interested in joining him. Worst of all, even after dire performances he doesn't seem to believe that it was indeed a dire performance. It's almost like he's delusional, in what world were the teams equal in Seville? Time to move on.
 
This theory that some have that our players are not good enough is a myth.

DDG is arguably the best in the world. Valencia is a seasoned international regarded as one of the best few right backs around. We have a choice of 5 seasoned international centre halves. Luke Shaw is regarded by most as a serious talent albeit unfulfilled (largely it could be said because of JM). Matic is a Premier League winner and a key figure in that win. Pogba a golden ball nominee. Lukaku scores 20 goals a year. Martial and Rashford 2 years ago were regarded as as good or better than Sane and Sterling. Mata is another premier league winner and former player of the year at Chelsea. Herrera was PoTY last year and Lingard is much improved. Young a good squad player every bit as good as a Fabian Delph. And we have Sanchez.

This group of players should be doing a lot more than they are, or at least promising to, and the manager needs to coax that out of them. The buck stops with Mourinho.

While it might not be time to wield the axe just yet the clock is ticking. Chelsea is a season defining game. We may be 2nd at present but only thanks to our first 7 games. On form Liverpool and Spurs will overtake us which means we have to beat and finish ahead of Chelsea.

If we drop out of the top 4 then any sacking will be richly deserved.
 
Genuine question..

Why doesn't Mourinhos just play Pogba and Sanchez in their best positions?

It sounds simple, and it is.

Both are out of position and both are suffering.
 
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