The Mourinho Thread: Should he stay or go? | Sacked

[nore1975]

City are so strong that it's hard to see what good changing the manager will do. For the past 5 years Man Utd have had 3 managers. There has been comings and goings in the squad but not in what you would call a coherent fashion. Moyes failed to start the rebuild. LVG then had to go gung ho at the rebuild and then Mourinho cleared out players like Love, Powell, McNair, Goss, and Januzaj but he has bought with no obvious game plan. Let's say in the interest of continuity you bring 3 new players to your first team then Mourinho should have a new team by now, his third season considering he inherited Martial and DDG.
City have spent 60m on Mahrez who is their record signing. Jose has spent 165m on Pogba and Lukaku. Pogba is too caught up in social media nonsense and Lukaku couldn't trap bag of sand.
Guardiola used his first season to assess what he inherited. He used his second season to plug the gaps he saw in his first team. He has used his third season to strengthen the squad. You could see Guardiola had a plan and now City look unstoppable. They played Utd off the park without KDB arguably one of the best players in Europe. Guardiola has rebuilt the City squad.
Klopp came into Liverpool in Oct 2015. He used his part season to assess the squad. He brought in firepower Salah, Mane, midfielder in Wijnaldum, CB in Van Dijk, LB in Robertson and Alisson GK. You could see that season on season he was improving the Liverpool side.

 

[Mainoldo]

Well we don't know the inner workings of the club. Jose's recent remarks about the scouting department hints at some conflict/discord. Ribalta leaving mid-transfer window also stinks of something being awfully wrong at the recruitment level.

As far as Martial is concerned, I can only go by Jose's word. In a recent interview he said he never wanted Martial gone from the club. The rest is just tabloid nonsense.

Just to be clear because I might have mid understood you. So a head scouting coach leaving means there is something wrong at recruiting? Like the evidence is in his job title. Are we denying him the tools to scout? If this is what your saying it makes no sense.

 

[Random Task]

Unfortunately most members didnt see buying Matic that way when he was initially bought.

Even at the end of last season many still didnt see it coming (https://www.redcafe.net/threads/Matic-debut-season-review.438495/). Some went as far as claiming he was the best signing by Mourinho yet and he was indeed instrumental last season. So criticism of buying Matic is being done now by most with the benefit of hind sight.

But to me it was obvious (Nemanja Matic| BBC says deal agreed) and anyone in a position to approve transfers should have known they would likely be getting 2yrs max from him and should have factored it in to the price negotiated and made plans for a timely replacement. Even if Matic was Mourinho's prime target, that fault still lies with Ed for approving the transfer as he has the final say.

No manager should have their transfers be automatically secured (after all what if it would bankrupt the club). What needs to be accepted is the needs identified by the manager but his list of candidates is just a small set of possible candidates to address the identified need. That list is not exhaustive (and usually can never be), as it is limited to the manager's subjective judgement of only the players the he is aware of. It is the responsibility of whoever has the final say on transfers to ensure the club explores beyond the list and in fact should be part of due diligence. It is only required that the input of the manager be considered in the final choice.

So, it's all Ed's fault because he decided to respect his managers judgement and pursue the players that they had requested. Until this summer, of course, when he finally realized that after shelling out £700 million on 23 players in a 5 years period - of which only 3 were a relative success (Martial, Shaw and Herrera) - the manager's who had requested these failures perhaps didn't know what the feck they were doing after all, and promptly limited expenditure until a more competent and knowledgeable manager came along.

Is that possible?

 

[Canagel]

I think you could levy the same accusation at Guardiola. Before Guardiola spent millions at city, he didnt win anything either. Big clubs need special managers who in turn need special players.

I dont think theres any doubt that Mourinho needs to spend money to succeed. But the club knew that when they hired him. Any club that hires Jose knows this. I wont defend Mourinho's football philosophy, its boring. But if he's given all the players he wants, he usually gets results and wins trophies.

His targets were not good enough. Alderweirweld, Boateng, Perisic, Matic, Willian, Lukaku. Those players will not win the PL and will be ready for the scrapheap in two years. What did Matic give us? 4 months maybe
Thank god we didn't get all his targets
Pep did better job of targeting the players he needed to build a team which can dominate now and for the future Beckerb

 

[Mainoldo]

Unfortunately most members didnt see buying Matic that way when he was initially bought.

Even at the end of last season many still didnt see it coming (https://www.redcafe.net/threads/Matic-debut-season-review.438495/). Some went as far as claiming he was the best signing by Mourinho yet and he was indeed instrumental last season. So criticism of buying Matic is being done now by most with the benefit of hind sight.

But to me it was obvious (Nemanja Matic| BBC says deal agreed) and anyone in a position to approve transfers should have known they would likely be getting 2yrs max from him and should have factored it in to the price negotiated and made plans for a timely replacement. Even if Matic was Mourinho's prime target, that fault still lies with Ed for approving the transfer as he has the final say.

No manager should have their transfers be automatically secured (after all what if it would bankrupt the club). What needs to be accepted is the needs identified by the manager but his list of candidates is just a small set of possible candidates to address the identified need. That list is not exhaustive (and usually can never be), as it is limited to the manager's subjective judgement of only the players the he is aware of. It is the responsibility of whoever has the final say on transfers to ensure the club explores beyond the list and in fact should be part of due diligence. It is only required that the input of the manager be considered in the final choice.

He didn’t get a CB due to price can you imagine him not getting Matic due to price. We would have started last season with Phil Jones CM to prove a point. Pep gets Gundogan Sevilla get Ever Banega. I could have imagined it right now.

 

[JPRouve]

It's not. It's mostly from Real and Portugal where he's the favorite for most games. Mourinho has 65% win record.

55% win record means 63 points in the league in a season.

Of course it's high, you just need to have an actual look at other managers. Also your math is only correct if you consider that you lose 17 games out of 38, since 55% is around 21 wins, most of the time 55% will lead you in the mid 70s. It's also not mainly from Portugal and Real Madrid.

Edit: Also you will notice that during two seasons he has no draws, that's because the competitions didn't allow them.

 

[cheeky_backheel]

So, it's all Ed's fault because he decided to respect his managers judgement and pursue the players that they had requested. Until this summer, of course, when he finally realized that after shelling out £700 million on 23 players in a 5 years period - of which only 3 were a relative success (Martial, Shaw and Herrera) - the manager's who had requested these failures perhaps didn't know what the feck they were doing after all, and promptly limited expenditure until a more competent and knowledgeable manager came along.

Is that possible?

if Ed 'decided to respect his managers judgement and pursue the players that they had requested' why didn't he sign perisic or willian two summers ago?

Ed decided who was bought and at what price. Final decisions were his and thus responsibility is his as well.

Its even worse if he is just rubber stamping the wishes of managers.

 

[Vanya]

Just to be clear because I might have mid understood you. So a head scouting coach leaving means there is something wrong at recruiting? Like the evidence is in his job title. Are we denying him the tools to scout? If this is what your saying it makes no sense.

No you havent misunderstood me but the the clue isnt in the name.

the lack of stability in the management and the lack of a coherent transfer policy isnt a co-incidence. One doesnt hire a scouting manager only to lose them in the middle of a transfer window. have i misunderstood you? or is it that you dont find it an odd happening at a disorganized and badly run club?

 

[el3mel]

His targets were not good enough. Alderweirweld, Boateng, Perisic, Matic, Willian, Lukaku. Those players will not win the PL and will be ready for the scrapheap in two years. What did Matic give us? 4 months maybe
Thank god we didn't get all his targets
Pep did better job of targeting the players he needed to build a team which can dominate now and for the future Beckerb

This is excuse currently. I'm looking forward to next summer under new manager when Ed fails to get more than 2 signings for him as well due to him not being able to negotiate any reasonable price. It's gonna be fun seeing the new excuses listed for him as the "veto signings" sure as hell won't be viable any more under the new manager.

 

[Vanya]

His targets were not good enough. Alderweirweld, Boateng, Perisic, Matic, Willian, Lukaku. Those players will not win the PL and will be ready for the scrapheap in two years. What did Matic give us? 4 months maybe
Thank god we didn't get all his targets
Pep did better job of targeting the players he needed to build a team which can dominate now and for the future Beckerb

Mourinho works with older/experienced players. That works for him. Why hire him if you dont like what he represents. OR if one hires him, then one has to go all the way and buy the players he wants even if they are 28/29 and past their peak.

And its not like our transfer policy vis a vis younger players like Schneiderlin, Depay, Blind etc. was working, was it?

 

[Mainoldo]

No you havent misunderstood me but the the clue isnt in the name.

the lack of stability in the management and the lack of a coherent transfer policy isnt a co-incidence. One doesnt hire a scouting manager only to lose them in the middle of a transfer window. have i misunderstood you? or is it that you dont find it an odd happening at a disorganized and badly run club?

If he wants to leave for a bigger job then he can. Was he being used to his potential I don’t know. But if he wasn’t it’s because his suggestions were running on death ears. By who? Obviously the manager. He realised a briefing to the press saying how he recommended Emre Can (free) the guy at Bayern, can’t spell his name but he was free too. Not one of them were persuaded but within that time our managers was waxing lyrical about renewing Fellaini’s contract. So maybe that’s why he left.

 

[cheeky_backheel]

He didn’t get a CB due to price can you imagine him not getting Matic due to price. We would have started last season with Phil Jones CM to prove a point. Pep gets Gundogan Sevilla get Ever Banega. I could have imagined it right now.

Matic is not the only DM in football. Not getting Matic should not mean not getting a DM at all.

We paid 40m for Matic and the question is if that is the best value we could have gotten. I think we could have gotten a younger DM for same price range that would have been a better value or paid more for higher quality. As an example of market value, Chelsea signed bakoyoko, who was highly hyped then, for 40m and Liverpool recently signed Fabinho for 44. Both were under 25yrs.

Same logic for CB. Mourinho wanted a CB that was better th en everyone we had. There is a price point for players of that quality and it is not cheap. You are not going to get Varane for the same price as Mcguire. Worse still is the law of diminishing returns that ensure s top players are grosslly overpriced e.g. 100m+ for koulibaly

 

[cheeky_backheel]

His targets were not good enough. Alderweirweld, Boateng, Perisic, Matic, Willian, Lukaku. Those players will not win the PL and will be ready for the scrapheap in two years. What did Matic give us? 4 months maybe
Thank god we didn't get all his targets
Pep did better job of targeting the players he needed to build a team which can dominate now and for the future Beckerb

So you think Perisic and Alderweireld wouldnt have made us a better team last season. We finished second without them and probably would have had a shot at the title with them.

The problem is their age/longevity but they definitely would have made us more competitive for the league title.

 

[Vanya]

If he wants to leave for a bigger job then he can. Was he being used to his potential I don’t know. But if he wasn’t it’s because his suggestions were running on death ears. By who? Obviously the manager. He realised a briefing to the press saying how he recommended Emre Can (free) the guy at Bayern, can’t spell his name but he was free too. Not one of them were persuaded but within that time our managers was waxing lyrical about renewing Fellaini’s contract. So maybe that’s why he left.

Goretzka.

I do not know if his suggestions were falling on deaf ears - was it Mourinho or was it Woodward (who loves signings that sell shirts - and Can and Goretzka dont sell shirts)

We will never know the inner workings of the club. But one thing is obvious, theres no better run club than City at the moment and no worse than United and that shows on the pitch as well.

Till we fix the administrative side of the club i.e. Woodward- nothing will change. Mourinho isnt the biggest problem at our club. I firmly believe that theres no manager in football that can win a major trophy with this squad. Yes we need a better manager. But more than that we need better players.

That can only happen when the club is run in an organized way with a group of experts and a world class DOF in-charge of recruitment.

 

[mancan92]

So you think Perisic and Alderweireld wouldnt have made us a better team last season. We finished second without them and probably would have had a shot at the title with them.

The problem is their age/longevity but they definitely would have made us more competitive for the league title.

The same alderweireld who is having a poor season and is injury prone? Perisic has 2 goals and 2 assists this season and he would have replaced martial. I don't see the improvement

 

[Random Task]

if Ed 'decided to respect his managers judgement and pursue the players that they had requested' why didn't he sign perisic or willian two summers ago?

The most logical reason being that he was unable to reach a mutual agreement on the sale price with the opposing chairman. It happens in football, you don't get every player you go after.

Ed decided who was bought and at what price. Final decisions were his and thus responsibility is his as well.

Its even worse if he is just rubber stamping the wishes of managers.

Ed only persued the targets that his manager's had requested of him because that is what the CEO of a football club does. If you're holding him responsible for his manager's error in judgement then you could say the same for every transfer ever made in the games history. You're moving goalposts here.

 

[cheeky_backheel]

Mourinho works with older/experienced players. That works for him. Why hire him if you dont like what he represents. OR if one hires him, then one has to go all the way and buy the players he wants even if they are 28/29 and past their peak.

And its not like our transfer policy vis a vis younger players like Schneiderlin, Depay, Blind etc. was working, was it?

Thats not really accurate - Mourinho wants proven players that can deliver more readily but these are usually older players. Mourinho signed pogba, ozil, di maria, varane, khedira, salah, etc at under 25yrs

 

[JMack1234]

It's ironic that Mourinho of all people has turned into a late-stage Wenger. Yes he'll get you in and around the top 4. Yes he' might deliver us a domestic trophy and yes the team will occasionally spark into life and get you a good result.

He won't win the Prem with United and he won't win the Champions League here.

He is getting outdone by more dynamic coaches consistently now. Forget Pep and his oil money for a second. Liverpool are 10 points in front of us, Chelsea with Sarri who only showed up this summer with most of his squad still in Russia are 8 in front of us. Even Emery has turned Arsenal into a joke team with a finished manager into a interesting and organised side who are 4 points above us. It is not good enough.

When we signed Mourinho we all knew the deal. We'd put up with his dead football and the inevitable meltdown and in return we'd win the big trophies. That now isn't happening.

I appreciate Mourinho and I think he's done a solid job by getting us into the CL and keeping us there but it looks he's reached the end of the road with us. I wouldn't sack him now. We need to wait until the end of season and then move on.

 

[Random Task]

So you think Perisic and Alderweireld wouldnt have made us a better team last season. We finished second without them and probably would have had a shot at the title with them.

The problem is their age/longevity but they definitely would have made us more competitive for the league title.

Maybe, maybe not. Sanchez didn't make us a better team, neither did Miki, Bailly or Lindelof. Matic was decent enough to a point but nothing earth-shattering, Lukaku scored goals for fun last season but is performing worse than any striker I have ever seen at United this term.

Nothing is certain with regards to player transfers, especially when you consider Jose's frankly awful strike-rate in said department.

 

[cheeky_backheel]

The most logical reason being that he was unable to reach a mutual agreement on the sale price with the opposing chairman. It happens in football, you don't get every player you go after.

cos we couldnt afford it or he felt the player wasnt worth the asking price?

if it is the latter, then he is responsible for thinking 1-2yrs of matic is worth the 40m we paid.

Ed only persued the targets that his manager's had requested of him because that is what the CEO of a football club does. If you're holding him responsible for his manager's error in judgement then you could say the same for every transfer ever made in the games history. You're moving goalposts here.

you dont limit pursuit to only the provided target unless you have the deep pockets to meet any asking price. earlier i gave the example of Inter where mourinho wanted carvalho but DoF got Lucio who was cheaper and Mourinho agreed it was the right decision.

if that is his approach, there are likely worse days ahead if he keeps handling transfers in this skyrocketing market.

 

[cheeky_backheel]

Maybe, maybe not. Sanchez didn't make us a better team, neither did Miki, Bailly or Lindelof. Matic was decent enough to a point but nothing earth-shattering, Lukaku scored goals for fun last season but is performing worse than any striker I have ever seen at United this term.

Nothing is certain with regards to player transfers, especially when you consider Jose's frankly awful strike-rate in said department.

The likes of Bail ly and Lindelof were unproven. They cannot be compared to Alderweireld and Perisic. Sanchez was midseason which is harder to integrate while Mkhi was good in his first season. The only fair comparison was Matic, and many felt he was the best signing at the end of last season.

 

[cheeky_backheel]

It's ironic that Mourinho of all people has turned into a late-stage Wenger. Yes he'll get you in and around the top 4. Yes he' might deliver us a domestic trophy and yes the team will occasionally spark into life and get you a good result.

He won't win the Prem with United and he won't win the Champions League here.

He is getting outdone by more dynamic coaches consistently now. Forget Pep and his oil money for a second. Liverpool are 10 points in front of us, Chelsea with Sarri who only showed up this summer with most of his squad still in Russia are 8 in front of us. Even Emery has turned Arsenal into a joke team with a finished manager into a interesting and organised side who are 4 points above us. It is not good enough.

When we signed Mourinho we all knew the deal. We'd put up with his dead football and the inevitable meltdown and in return we'd win the big trophies. That now isn't happening.

I appreciate Mourinho and I think he's done a solid job by getting us into the CL and keeping us there but it looks he's reached the end of the road with us. I wouldn't sack him now. We need to wait until the end of season and then move on.

i think the bad start, with the playing of herrera and mctomminay in defence, was deliberate by Mourimho, in a bid to make a point to management for not getting his targets. If we had started as we are currently playing we would be higher up the table if not second.

 

[Snow]

Of course it's high, you just need to have an actual look at other managers. Also your math is only correct if you consider that you lose 17 games out of 38, since 55% is around 21 wins, most of the time 55% will lead you in the mid 70s. It's also not mainly from Portugal and Real Madrid.

Edit: Also you will notice that during two seasons he has no draws, that's because the competitions didn't allow them.

Yea, math was incorrect. I was doing the points, not just the wins. Points are more important than straight up wins so I assumed that it was that percentage being shown which was incorrect.

He managed Sporting for 2 seasons and Real for 1. At both clubs if you don't finish top 3 you've done a horrible job. He lost 10 matches in the league with Real which is bad and he got knocked out of the CL by Monaco and he had Zidane, Ronaldo, Figo and Casillas and Raúl in their prime. That's what he's done at club level which is what matters. Half of his stats are with Iran, Portugal, South Africa and UAE. We took on LvG after he did well with Netherlands. It's not the same thing.

 

[Don Alfredo]

I don‘t understand how this is still a question or what is there to discuss? There is no excuse for 8th place and bad football with the 2nd most expensive side in the PL.

I mean Arsene Wenger of all people got the boot for being in 6th place at Arsenal, a club with much less resources.

 

[RooneyLegend]

The same alderweireld who is having a poor season and is injury prone? Perisic has 2 goals and 2 assists this season and he would have replaced Martial. I don't see the improvement

Its amazing that someone would think those two would represent a 20 point improvement.

 

[68Guns]

Still can't believe Jose is the boss. He's wasted millions of Wonga on total dross players. There are no youngster coming through who look promising. As has been said many times in this thread to have spent so much money and still be absolutely miles off challenging for the title is a total disgrace. Remember Jose is supposed to know the game, be tactically astute and have good motivational skills. He has not shown any of those attributes that warrant such massive pay.
When he joined us it should of been a condition of his contract that he moves his family to a home in the Cheshire countryside, not live week in week out at the Lowry and jet to London every week.
The team play drab football, Sanchez is stealing ½million pound a week from the club, the bitters are laughing at us and once again the bald nose picking Spaniard has got the better of Jose.
It's time to get shut asap. Now would be ideal in this international break. The job of managing Man United is way too big for Jose. Shut the door when u leave.

 

[iluvoursolskjær]

Anyone that isn't Mourinho out by now is an absolute lunatic.

 

[RooneyLegend]

It's ironic that Mourinho of all people has turned into a late-stage Wenger. Yes he'll get you in and around the top 4. Yes he' might deliver us a domestic trophy and yes the team will occasionally spark into life and get you a good result.

He won't win the Prem with United and he won't win the Champions League here.

He is getting outdone by more dynamic coaches consistently now. Forget Pep and his oil money for a second. Liverpool are 10 points in front of us, Chelsea with Sarri who only showed up this summer with most of his squad still in Russia are 8 in front of us. Even Emery has turned Arsenal into a joke team with a finished manager into a interesting and organised side who are 4 points above us. It is not good enough.

When we signed Mourinho we all knew the deal. We'd put up with his dead football and the inevitable meltdown and in return we'd win the big trophies. That now isn't happening.

I appreciate Mourinho and I think he's done a solid job by getting us into the CL and keeping us there but it looks he's reached the end of the road with us. I wouldn't sack him now. We need to wait until the end of season and then move on.

Why not? Get a new guy in now and allow him the rest of the season to evaluate what we have and formulate a strategy of what we could get in the market come the summer.

 

[Canagel]

This is excuse currently. I'm looking forward to next summer under new manager when Ed fails to get more than 2 signings for him as well due to him not being able to negotiate any reasonable price. It's gonna be fun seeing the new excuses listed for him as the "veto signings" sure as hell won't be viable any more under the new manager.

Ed got nearly 10 signings for Mourinho. He got all the players LVG asked for. It's not his fault if they wasted the money by either targeting the wrong players (overpriced, old) in mourinhos case or not getting the best out of them.

 

[RooneyLegend]

After 400 million we don't have a stable defence, a productive attack or a game controlling midfield.

At the same point City had completed their side in all departments. Pool has built a stable defence, a great attack, but a midfield in progress.

We are clearly not heading in the right direction.

 

[RedDevil@84]

I don‘t understand how this is still a question or what is there to discuss? There is no excuse for 8th place and bad football with the 2nd most expensive side in the PL.

I mean Arsene Wenger of all people got the boot for being in 6th place at Arsenal, a club with much less resources.

If we finish 6th by end of season, I think Jose is a goner. It will be a little tricky if we finish 3rd or 4th.
Again, I doubt if Woodward will be evaluating in November. He leaves it late even for straight forward contract extensions.

 

[Canagel]

After 400 million we don't have a stable defence, a productive attack or a game controlling midfield.

At the same point City had completed their side in all departments. Pool has built a stable defence, a great attack, but a midfield in progress.

We are clearly not heading in the right direction.

Correct. At least LVG could claim the possession. This Mourinho led United is not good at any aspect of the game. No area which we can pinpoint clearly and say this is working but we're missing this final step and 1/2 players will solve it. I would wait for another window if I felt this was the case. Both Klopp and Pep's teams were attacking and creating abundance of chances BEFORE they strengthened their defences must not be forgotten.

 

[iluvoursolskjær]

LVG truly made OT the theatre of dreams by putting us all to sleep with his style with that group of players, but if he had the luxury of this current crop I've no doubt he'd have us dominating games and competing for top honours.

 

[Kharhaz]

I think you could levy the same accusation at Guardiola. Before Guardiola spent millions at city, he didnt win anything either. Big clubs need special managers who in turn need special players.

I dont think theres any doubt that Mourinho needs to spend money to succeed. But the club knew that when they hired him. Any club that hires Jose knows this. I wont defend Mourinho's football philosophy, its boring. But if he's given all the players he wants, he usually gets results and wins trophies.

Yes and no.

Yes as in, Guardiola has never struggled financially at any club, and pretty much every club he has been at, they have had a good foundation for him to build from, so it hasnt really been a challenge for him. However that very same thing can go towards Mourinho.

No as in, Guardiola has one ability Mourinho doesnt. He is tactically astute. He knows when to defend, when to attack, what players to pick, what players to work with. We have seen nothing like that, EVER, from Mourinho. At Chelsea people called him a tactical genius, whenever he played defensive, counter attacked, time wasted, apparently that was a genius tactician. To everyone else, its lousy tactics. Guardiola can also work with players to get the best out of them, give them confidence, Mourinho is only too happy to blame his players when things go wrong.

Look at the managers in the Premier League. Eddie Howe, Sean Dyche, Jurgen Klopp, Mauricio Poccetino, Guardiola, they all defend to the hilt the players they have. Mourinho doesnt, he will happily throw them under the bus to save his own skin.

There is only one person, as far as im concerned, who is to blame for the situation United are in, and its the manager. He has had the money, and he has simply wasted it. He has always been a chequebook manager, and in todays game, its not enough for him now to buy success, he actually needs to put some thought into his play.

 

[Seven Seas Sardines]

I don't understand how there can still be Mourinho apologists. It's like he's trying to do as much damage to our club as possible before he gets a big pay-out.

As if our horrible football and poor results wasn't enough, he now wants to sell Bailly and Rojo while keeping the chuckle brothers. I wouldn't be surprised if Darmian gets a new contract in January too.

Players Mourinho wanted/wants to leave...
Martial
Bailly
Rojo

Might be looking elsewhere if he stays in charge...
Pereira
De Gea
Pogba
(Fred)

He's open to give new contracts to...
Smalling
Jones
Valencia
Young
Herrera
Mata​

 

[BlueHaze]

LVG truly made OT the theatre of dreams by putting us all to sleep with his style with that group of players, but if he had the luxury of this current crop I've no doubt he'd have us dominating games and competing for top honours.

I dissagree he was absolute trash and even worse than Mourinho. Also wasted money signing complete garbage like Schneiderlin, Rojo and Di Maria who everyone knew only wanted to use us as a stop gap before going to paris. Really can't understand how you could think that dosser would have us competing for top honours. Both him and Jose are managers who had their time in the past but failed to adapt to the present using the same styles they did 50 years ago and failed miserably to emulate their past success.

 

[iluvoursolskjær]

I dissagree he was absolute trash and even worse than Mourinho. Also wasted money signing complete garbage like Schneiderlin, Rojo and Di Maria who everyone knew only wanted to use us as a stop gap before going to paris. Really can't understand how you could think that dosser would have us competing for top honours. Both him and Jose are managers who had their time in the past but failed to adapt to the present using the same styles they did 50 years ago and failed miserably to emulate their past success.

I may have taken it too far to illustrate my point, all I’m really saying is he’d certainly have performed much better on the pitch with this group of players.

Him and Jose are very similar in that they implement very rigid systems that depend on individual brilliance from a few world class players. Difference is LVG would have done it dominating the ball and being the team with the initiative rather than this park the bus ‘control the game without the ball’ direct counter attack shite.

 

[RedDevil@84]

Anyone who thinks we are playing "Park the bus" tactics in this season needs to get their eyes checked.

 

[iluvoursolskjær]

We only seem more attacking because we've been the first team to concede more often than not. That's when we ever start playing football, once we're behind.

Not to mention that it's just totally disingenuous to try argue that this is not Jose's modus operandi when it comes to big games.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

We only seem more attacking because we've been the first team to concede more often than not. That's when we ever start playing football, once we're behind.

True. We're having to chase every game. Against WH we sat back at the start. Same against City, and many other games. There may be a slight difference in approach but I can't say I've noticed anything substantial other than having to force the issue more due to being behind.