Jose Mourinho | 2017/18 Assessments | Poll Added

Your stance

  • Top manager in charge of a major rebuild. Needs more time and/or money.

    Votes: 684 43.8%

  • Made improvements but we've stagnated. Sack him if we drop out of top 4

    Votes: 377 24.1%

  • He's not the right fit. Sack him and get someone else who can get more out of our squad

    Votes: 502 32.1%
  • Total voters
    1,563
  • Poll closed .
Status
Not open for further replies.
@Cait Sith

Everyone has already pretty much said what I'd have responded with. Just to re-iterate those shot stats are misleading as most of them weren't actually threatening. They were helped to get on and stay on the front foot as our game plan went from early pressing (which earned us 2 goals) to then sit on this lead thus handing Arsenal the advantage. Somehow DDG's amazing performance has made it look like he saved us for nearly all of those shots but really his truly world class saves were Lukaku's and that double effort which would've made it 2-2. Perhaps arguably 1 or 2 more, but definitely nowhere near what 30 shots suggests.

To add to that, tactics can be perfect for a game, but the players still have to execute them correctly. As I said usually we are one of, if not the best at protecting a lead, and 2-0 is a strong cushion for a team of our calibre. It's just we had a higher amount of defensive lapses that necessitated DDG to pull a rabbit out a hat on an occasion or two. Tactically Jose was excellent IMO, the only criticism is that I felt his subs were slightly too late.
 
We scored 3 goals away to a top 6 side, it was a classic Jose smash and grab, Arsenal fans are very bitter, what more do people want?
 
I just wanted to say even though I have criticized Mourinho in this very thread, I havent felt this excited about winning trophies since SAF.
First time he lead us in Europa league he went all the way. Now he is close to winning the group in CL and what comes next is hard to say but I don't feel pre-defeated like during Moyes.

At times I get frustrated because of the draws or crap football but when I take a break and "zoom out" to view the entire Mourinho period the line is pointing upwards like stock charts.
From what I observe, the players seems upto it aswell. The celebrations are crazy, even the substitutes are genuinely happy to see the team scores. Maybe its because most of the team has been together for a while so they have bonded well, maybe its Mourinhos siege mentality. Hard to say but watching replay of goals and seeing all 11 players react like mad dogs when the ball goes in really makes me happy.


I believe in this team, I believe in Mourinho. I think we can go very far in the champions league.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Invictus
Most of their shots weren't threatening and the ones that were was down to our defenders not closing their attackers down fast enough. Was uncharacteristically poor defending from us. We are usually solid at the back, if there's any team I'd bet on the maintain a 2-0 lead it'd be us, but we had a poor day at the office collectively (from a defensive standpoint).

That being said, the counter-attacking football on show was nothing short of phenomenal. The quick, intricate passing in the middle of the pitch to get away from their markers was something to behold. I also noticed that Lingard was dropping deep into the middle of the pitch a lot, to create a 2v3 and as a result was almost always finding space alone, not sure if that was down to Jose's tactics or just down to Lingard's very smart movement (probably both).

I've always associated Jose as being one of, if not the best counter-attacking manager around. Some of the football his teams have played in the past have been very exciting to watch, which is why I was confused as to why we weren't a counter-attacking side under him. I wouldn't mind us going down his Madrid route though (from a footballing perspective, you know, not falling out with the whole squad :D)

Was a great game, one of the most enjoyable I remember watching in a long time in the EPL. I genuinely don't believe we were ever at risk, we were comfortable. We were 2-0 up and sat back, invited pressure. They scored one and people got a bit antsy, but we then turned on another gear and scored another only for us to sit back again.
 
On a side note - how frustrating must it be for him going into all these huge games without our best players? How many games have we played against the top teams, without our first choice defence and Pogba?
 
These media guys are funny. First they write a story without any proof and then prove their own story wrong without any proof. And here we have some taking these proofless stories seriously.
 
Mourinho has got what he wants here with money to spend in January? Dont think he was ever going to PSG anyway.
 
Brave to go with a midfield 2 against City especially after what happened last year, folks who are chuffed in match thread with the lineup will be calling him all sorts if this goes awry.
 
Kush said:
Brave to go with a midfield 2 against City especially after what happened last year, folks who are chuffed in match thread with the lineup will be calling him all sorts if this goes awry.
Click to expand...

Nah it's good to see. Think it's compact enough anyway as Matic and Herrera won't likely move forward much.
 
Kush said:
Brave to go with a midfield 2 against City especially after what happened last year, folks who are chuffed in match thread with the lineup will be calling him all sorts if this goes awry.
Click to expand...
Fans will always be more receptive to a brave and attacking lineup. A 3 man midfield would've been smart of course but when both pogba and fellaini are injured, what can you do?
 
Happy with the lineup, let's have them.
 
Kush said:
Brave to go with a midfield 2 against City especially after what happened last year, folks who are chuffed in match thread with the lineup will be calling him all sorts if this goes awry.
Click to expand...

TBF, at this time we played with Pogba who has limited defensive efforts alongside Fellaini, so that was one DMF against their 2 attacking midfielders. Today we're going with 2 clear DMFs.
 
Jose - Pep 1:0. I mean, our line-up is very surprising and Pep is scratching his head right now.
 
Kush said:
Brave to go with a midfield 2 against City especially after what happened last year, folks who are chuffed in match thread with the lineup will be calling him all sorts if this goes awry.
Click to expand...

We were destroyed last year cos he went with Pogba/Fellaini. Fellaini was too slow in that midfield and Pogba’s positional discipline was nothing to write home about.

Pogba left Fellaini with 4 City players in the middle of the pitch and they did numbers on us. We became stable shortly after Herrera joined the game from the bench but the game was as good as lost after giving 2 cheap goals away.
 
I'm seeing a lot of people singling out players in the match day thread which I don't agree with. The tactics José's using against City isn't beneficial to anyone - not even Lukaku.
 
Yagami said:
I'm seeing a lot of people singling out players in the match day thread which I don't agree with. The tactics José's using against City isn't beneficial to anyone - not even Lukaku.
Click to expand...
His tactic is defend and hoof. And we will lose this.
 
Well...

Let's see what United are paying him for. Not good so far today.

I know possession isn't everything but this a pretty pathetic display so far.
 
I refuse to believe the tactic is simply to hoof it.
Our players are panicking.
 
We actually went and attacked which resulted in a goal. I hope José sees this and continues going at them - don't sit back!
 
Until he cuts out this anti football, I'll never take to him. We should never play these destructive hoofball tactics, never mind at Old Trafford.
 
Up to their goal it was as cowardly a set up from a utd side as I’ve ever seen

I don’t even think I’m overreacting
 
We press them and score. Our first real sustained pressure. City haven’t been great but we allowing them to be with no pressure.
 
Adisa said:
I refuse to believe the tactic is simply to hoof it.
Our players are panicking.
Click to expand...

It's obviously to hit them on the counter, but City are doing a good job of boxing players in and cutting off angles to play out.

The fact Henry spent 2 minutes explaining it makes it particularly baffling that people still can't see it and assume we're hoofing out of preference.
 
After city scored and we put the bus in gear we troubled them, we need more of this.
 
When will he learn that we are a terrible side at sitting back and soaking up pressure. We don't have the composure for it. Just get at them and play proactively and we are by far at our best. Happens every time we get a lead too. We give away too much space when we do that.
 
What a surprise that City looked vulnerable as soon as we attacked them. It's no point in parking the bus against them as they'll get at us at some moment, hopefully we attack much more in second half.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.