Mourinho's post match comments

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@Roboc7
So if playing attacking football at a quicker tempo is beyond these players then what exactly has Jose been criticised for over the last 2 years?
We're always told how well they would play under Pep or Klopp yet they're asked to do a fraction of the basics and they fall to pieces.
 
Livvie said:
It's the players who play consistently badly who need to be motivated - Luke Shaw is a prime example of a player who was not playing at all badly but gets crucified after 45 minutes.
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He doesn't look particularly bad because he is playing very safe. Which is what Jose's problem seems to be. Every game he plays, you can see Mourinho yelling at him to go forward. Today there were a few moments where he is standing still with the entire flank is empty ahead of him and at one point Matic was with the ball and literally looking at him for a few seconds until he realized he is not going to make the run. He does these little 15-20 meter pushes with the ball when he gets it and gets praise for them but he almost never makes a run without the ball even when he is left alone. It's hard to notice the lack of something. His heatmap shows it consistently though.
 
Minimalist said:
I'm possibly forgetting all of them but weren't all of those managers underperforming? I mean I remember Benitez getting shite from them regardless of performances just because of who he is to them.

I don't advocate players getting a manager sacked but whether it was wrong to do it or not, everything wasn't peachy as far as my memory goes.
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Well as for Benitez isn't that a bit lame. They hated him from the get go cause of what he is to them.

For instance they rebelled against Jose after he won the league for them (2nd stint) and he wasn't only one to blame for all that drama, that's for sure.

And if Conte goes cause of the players it will be ridiculous too.
 
Minimalist said:
I'm possibly forgetting all of them but weren't all of those managers underperforming? I mean I remember Benitez getting shite from them regardless of performances just because of who he is to them.

I don't advocate players getting a manager sacked but whether it was wrong to do it or not, everything wasn't peachy as far as my memory goes.
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The players actually played well for Benitez(won him the Europa league), it's the fans who had problems with Benitez.
 
steffyr2 said:
What a crock. The Mourinho way they're not buying into is to work during the game, they'd rather ponce around. That's on them.
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Inigo Montoya said:
That’s on them.
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Hold up.

What did we do so different today that qualifies it to have been such a let down to our manager, and Tuesday night against Sevilla? Where’s the consistency. One moment he’s protecting the players, and the next he’s just pointing out the naughty lot, right? Love (not) your Mou tinted glasses.

Now I’m not saying that we haven’t had issues with a certain core of players in the past. Not being able to complete 5 yard passes, static forward lines and no one making runs. But Pogba and Sanchez are recent purchases and if they aren’t playing well then questions need to be asked. The fault lies on the collective, but Mourinho sure as shit does plenty wrong like team selection, negative approaches, what seems like a lack of coaching of our attack (why is it that almost 2 years in they still look like a bunch of individuals), publicly saying that our team isn’t good enough and going out to Sevilla is not abnormal to our ‘football heritage’.

I also noted in my previous post that earlier in the season when we were battering teams, confidence was high. Then we went to Liverpool and parked the bus, our form subsequently fell off a cliff. A similar thing has literally JUST happened. I refuse to believe that this performance is solely on the players. Man management, team morale and motivation are on the coach.
 
JPRouve said:
But in reality it's more nuanced, in general the faults have to be shared and the players with the worst attitude, the least coachable have to be sacked too.
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Players get "sacked" all the time. No one understands more that they can be getting rid of when they are not performing than players. Notice Depay, Schneiderlin, Rooney, Schweini, etc are no longer here.
 
cyberman said:
@Roboc7
So if playing attacking football at a quicker tempo is beyond these players then what exactly has Jose been criticised for over the last 2 years?
We're always told how well they would play under Pep or Klopp yet they're asked to do a fraction of the basics and they fall to pieces.
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Is that because of the individual, though, or is it because the movement and fluidity of the team is not there? Mourinho mentioned defenders passing to each other 10-12 times due to the movement of the attacking players. Surely he has to work on it more if it's still an issue.
 
Ban said:
Well as for Benitez isn't that a bit lame. They hated him from the get go cause of what he is to them.

For instance they rebelled against Jose after he won the league for them (2nd stint) and he wasn't only one to blame for all that drama, that's for sure.

And if Conte goes cause of the players it will be ridiculous too.
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Mourinho also alienated the core players responsible for that title win TBH.
 
Keeps It tidy said:
Players get "sacked" all the time. No one understands more that they can be getting rid of when they are not performing than players. Notice Depay, Schneiderlin, Rooney, Schweini, etc are no longer here.
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I agree, I just added some nuance to your post because it gives the impression that only the manager can be at fault.
 
These comments seem to me as if they were pre-planned. We had many games like today where we actually lost or have drawn and he never made comments like that before.

In my opinion there are two options why he behaves like this.

1 He wants to shake up the players because he always felt like this and thinks the situation now is suitable to speak up. We are out of the CL and have an international break coming up. If the board is with him then we can expect a big clear out in the summer.


2 The criticism got to him and he is trying to deflect blame. Speaking about fast build-up play? We haven’t had fast build-up play for many years now and he is not known for it either. Overly harsh criticism for Shaw seems misplaced too. He didn’t play too well but not as bad as he made out.


Option one would be highly preferable and his comments on Friday(generel direction of the club, the backing of the board, etc) give me hope that that’s the case. Otherwise it will all end up in tears and we are back to square one...
 
redIndianDevil said:
Mourinho is known bullshitter. We never had good movement from our players for almost majority of the time under Mourinho, why is he suddenly harping about that? Almost all criticisms of us under Mourinho has been about the lack of movement.
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If it’s only one game, it’s acceptable to say Mourinho post comments might right. But two years gone and he still blaming the player individually. When the time is dark and cold, Mourinho blames everyone but himself, always not his fault or his responsibility.
 
Can't say we weren't warned about him, history just repeating itself again, for me he needs to go before he does too much more damage.
 
@Walters_19_MuFc
But it sounds like they are working on it but are too cowardly to bring it onto the field.
We're not even lethal on the break anymore and that's something we know we're good at.
This rant seems to be based off of lack of character rather than playing well or badly. What we're actually working on isn't that important in a strange sort of way.
 
Walters_19_MuFc said:
I find it strange how, the moment people start questioning his style of play, he makes a point of saying he's been working on it, but the players are not carrying it out on the pitch.

Question should be, why is it not working? You've had these set of players for two seasons now. In that time, I hate comparing, but Pep, Klopp, Pochettino and even Conte have been able to implement a certain style. I just don't see that with United at the moment, and to me, that's all down to the manager.
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EXACTLY.

This is Jose in a nutshell and it seems some people still can't see through his now obvious antics. He now knows that his style of play is being questioned(at least now more than it's ever been since that Sevilla debacle), so now he finds a way to blame it on others(players) rather than himself the creator.

He's had these lads playing this drab football for over a year and expect them to suddenly start putting in scintillating attacking display after some 2 days drill emphasised on attacking football.

The man talks about building fast play while having Smallish starting at the back with 2 defensive midfielders sitting in front of him yet wants to sell us that the blame is solely on the players. His antics are ridiculous.
 
Come to think about right now our most senior players are not really high profiled(Jones, Smalling, Valencia, Young) and our most high profile players(Pogba,Sanchez,Lukaku) have not been at the club for that long. The only one who is both is De Gea. So this might not be as suicidal as going to war with guys like Ramos and Casillas who were both.
 
Ban said:
Well as for Benitez isn't that a bit lame. They hated him from the get go cause of what he is to them.

For instance they rebelled against Jose after he won the league for them (2nd stint) and he wasn't only one to blame for all that drama, that's for sure.

And if Conte goes cause of the players it will be ridiculous too.
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I really don't think Conte wants to stay. That's not the impression I get.

As for the second Chelsea sacking Jose, I really don't know what else they could have done. They were sinking. He was blaming all around him causing a right scene. I know people at time thought it was shocking but then look Leicester had to do the same thing a year later.
 
Must admit I didn’t watch the game tonight, the first one I didn’t watch in a long time. Kind of knew it was going to be a bit dull, especially after the diabolical game against Sevilla. And double-specifically because he benched Pogba and Sanchez.

McTominay, Mata, Lingard, Lukaku.... ZzZzZ...
 
I find the whole 'well if you can't take this criticism then you shouldn't be playing for United' shit really tedious tbh. Do you really believe that crazy rich footballers who are in their mid 20's are sitting today and thinking that my manager isn't happy with our effort so we should give more in from next game, no one in any job thinks like that let alone footballers . They are obviously going to ignore the first couple of times and if it happens too frequently there will be issues inside the dressing room
 
Walters_19_MuFc said:
I find it strange how, the moment people start questioning his style of play, he makes a point of saying he's been working on it, but the players are not carrying it out on the pitch.

Question should be, why is it not working? You've had these set of players for two seasons now. In that time, I hate comparing, but Pep, Klopp, Pochettino and even Conte have been able to implement a certain style. I just don't see that with United at the moment, and to me, that's all down to the manager.
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Basically this. He's had ample time to rectify these underlying issues of slow build up play, sideways passing and a lot of the problems that were left by LVG. A top manager would've realised straight away that you can't have fast build up with Smalling and Fellaini in your team so he would've got rid and bought replacements.
 
RedStarUnited said:
Who signed and picked the players today?

He wanted fast build ups but played Smalling at the back?

He is always in praise of Matic but for me he has been poor in his actual team functions for a while now. He hogs the ball and takes the longest time to move it on. We have not for a any period this year played consistently great football. Even when we were winning 4-0s.

He clearly loves Mata because he allows him to go and do whatever he wants on the pitch. Even though Mata hardly ever plays a defence splitting pass nor is he great when pressed. Mata plays like Messi in this team, its unbelievable. Shaw plays well, goes on the bench when Young is ready. Shaw plays bad, goes on the bench for Young. He doesnt fancy him and Shaw knows.

Jose refuses to get the team to press from the front which results in every single team we play basically walking into our half when they want to. You have to ask if he is even playing to his teams strengths.

He is taking the easy route and blaming the players. Eventually he will lose them and we will probably have a stinker of a season cos of it. If Woodward was a football man he would anticipate this and sack him this summer. Bayern pulled the plug on Ancelloti nice and early and turned their fortunes around.
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I actually agree with you on Matic. Yes he's made a difference to us this season but he's too sluggish at times and holds on to the ball a lot. In Mourinho's style of defending in a low block he's perfect likewise Smalling but under Pep or Klopp he wouldn't play because he doesn't have the legs for the pressing. If our next manager plays a different brand of football I don't think Matic will last very long. Great post.
 
SteveJ said:
I've felt that, since he came here, Mourinho has little faith in our players - he's used to strong personalities, even if they're not top footballers, and we have very few strong personalities.
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Agree with that. Now there'll either be a response or things might escalate quickly.

I agree with what he's saying, but I'm very skeptical as to whether it has a beneficial effect. There really never is a good time for a manager to publicly be brutally honest about his players. The next few months will probably test whether or not the board is truly fully behind him. If so, the players will know they are playing for their United careers.
 
How can Mourinho say that the last 2 days he has been trying to train the players to be more aggressive and play at a higher tempo. It isn't a new thing...we have been playing lethargically for ages. Surely he should be working on this all the time? It's his negative tactics that set the players up to fail imo. No pressing, seemingly no structure of attacking play, looks like the players are fed up. They have to take some blame aswell because some performances have been disgusting frankly, but i really don't see how Mourinho turns this round now.
 
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Walters_19_MuFc said:
Is that because of the individual, though, or is it because the movement and fluidity of the team is not there? Mourinho mentioned defenders passing to each other 10-12 times due to the movement of the attacking players. Surely he has to work on it more if it's still an issue.
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His setup, in an attacking sense, is the polar opposite of LVG. LVG wants players playing to very specific instructions, Jose wants them to have the character and determination to naturally attack. Seems to be what he's indicating with all his talk of personality and needing to grow up.
 
Ayush_reddevil said:
I find the whole 'well if you can't take this criticism then you shouldn't be playing for United' shit really tedious tbh. Do you really believe that crazy rich footballers who are in their mid 20's are sitting today and thinking that my manager isn't happy with our effort so we should give more in from next game, no one in any job thinks like that let alone footballers . They are obviously going to ignore the first couple of times and if it happens too frequently there will be issues inside the dressing room
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And what's even more tedious is the fact that most of those championing Mourinho public criticism of his players are well aware of how it spectacularly failed at Chelsea. And their defense to that is that our team is different to amy other past Joses and would rather back Mourinho over many players as if that could ever realistically happen.
 
Also; when he criticises some players blaitantly more harshly than others, when some keep getting minutes after giving crap performance after crap performance and others get inexplicably dropped, when he never takes responsibility for his own failings yet never has a problem calling out others in public (including Manchester united's 'FOOTBALL HERITAGE') - I find it difficult to imagine how players are going to be running through brick walls for him. He all but said our team is shit after Sevilla, of course the players are going to be absolutely cloud 9.
 
One thing I've noticed with United under mourinho in comparison with his other teams is how passive we are at pressing, particularly the front four. at chelsea, costa, willian, hazard and oscar were hounding defenders and forcing mistakes. In addition, the reading of the game from our defenders( except bailly) is pretty poor in comparison to his other teams, every time we get countered, their strikers have so much time and space to hold and pass. That never happened at any other mourinho team. Our passing out from the back, particularly from our full back positions is poor. No other jose mourinho team were this slow in making decisions from the back. Our defenders don't even use long balls, they just pass it around. These are traits that we had under van gaal, and i assumed a new manager would fix it, especially one as successful as Jose. But if a guy known for direct, aggressive, disciplined, fast paced counter attacking football can't instill these attributes to a team, clearly there is a problem in the talent and the attitude of players. The evidence is in his former teams.
 
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His quote from his press conference on Friday

"I am not going to run away or disappear or to cry because I heard a few boos, I'm not going to disappear from the tunnel, running immediately, the next match I will be the first to go out. I am not afraid of my responsibilities."

We all thought he was talking to the media but after what he said after beating Brighton it looks as if it was aimed at the players

He says he has the backing of the board, we know he is a ruthless winner of 20 odd major trophies so he is finally telling the players start performing or you are out - probably something this club has needed for 4 years

He also said in training we are passing the ball forward quicker and telling players to make runs in between the lines for attacking options - but the players are passing the ball sideways and being slow in their movement ,

He himself is hurt he has somehow manage to sign 2 players that were mentally weak Mhitaryan and Pogba and inherited a few of them too

If he gets top 4 he stays as you would guess that is the minimum the board expects this season we are in for a very interesting summer and a few big name players could be off
 
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Not sure why he needs to go public about some players performances. The way he slagged Tony V and Shaw was ridiculous. He may well have had a plan, but it was pretty obvious Brighton also planned on keeping Both Shaw and Tony V at bay. Neither Martial or Mata helped provide cover, width or an outlet when these guys were given the ball.
 
Frank Grimes said:
Why does Mourinho have to share his inner most thoughts to the media? You can think/know something without divulging it to the media, it's odd and cannot be good for team morale.
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The other day he was talking about Pogba's best position openly to the media. Some things are better said behind closed doors but he's very sensitive and I think the pressure has got to him. He knows fans are on his back and he should just keep it simple and work on what needs to be worked on behind the scenes.
 
If after two seasons, four transfer windows and X millions spent he's uncapable of leading his team to perform the way he wants, then it's pointless to spend more time and money on him. Because winning or not depends on many things, but he's admiting that not even half of the team today was performing the way he wanted. We should be flying as a team at this stage and this is what we have instead.

Watching his last press conferences, I think there's a big chance of him leaving at the end of this season, probably by mutual consent. The way we play at the minute and how he's approaching the whole thing, we're two bad results away of everything exploding. It's not sustainable to have a manager against many players (and viceversa) and the ending in this case is always the same.

The board can back Mourinho to a certain point, but he needs to convince the players and create a good atmosphere, and he seems incapable of it. He lost Real's dressing room, it happened at Chelsea and more than probably it's happening again. That's three in a row, always just after a pair of seasons. If he really needs to change half of the dressing room everywhere after two years, then he needs to take a look at himself before spouting all this garbage about others.
 
A massive part of that post match was brewing from the Sevilla game.

Despite what he came out and said after that game he obviously would not have been happy at all, and would have made it clear to the players.

He massively deflected from their performance with his rant and probably expected them to pay him back with a good performance today. When that didn't happen he's decided enough is enough and let them have it. All just speculation obviously, but it fits quite well and I'm fully behind him on this.

There were times today were it looked as if the screen had froze there was that little movement. The players need to grow some balls and sieze their opportunities when handed them. If this dressing down means we lose a couple of players we thought would make it here then fine. They haven't got the character I want at our club.

Hopefully we'll get a reaction from a few of them and they start to realise half arsed displays won't be tolerated.
 
Scarecrow said:
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This is confusing for me. Working on something for 2 days is not a lot of time, but he makes it seem like after two days the players should grasp whatever strategy he is trying to instill.
 
You aren't going to get consistently brilliant attacking football when players like McTominay, Lingard and Rashford are in your front six. Desire is little to do with it.

If he intends to replace the likes of Martial with more 'workers' in their mold then we're going nowhere fast.
 
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