Jose Mourinho

[ClintEastwould]

Yet Dier would have offered far more protection than Sissoko and Winks tonight.

How many times do we have to delude ourselves into believing this?

 

[mano-obe]

Perfect game for us. Away trip to Old Trafford. A few of the players he managed game raised beyond belief and he witnessed how we can be as a team under pressure. It gives him a lot to work with

Not the end of the world and we almost stole an equalizer at the end

 

[agrdavidsfan]

I also think Jose has seriously under estimated how fucked this team were are.

Poch is coaching methods looks like it has physically burnt some of these players into the ground.

There was also the rumour that poch fucked off some great fitness guys to fit his son in and some other friends and it actually does look like an amateur has been in charge of our fitness.

The players look so lethargic and I don’t think it’s a motivation thing I think it’s a sports science thing!

A premier league team that just don’t have legs to run I think poch has burnt them out!

@Hercules May be able to shed some light on the training under poch as something is not right with our fitness levels

 

[spursfan77]

It was clumsy but it was also a dive.

It’s always the same players giving away the penalties though. Him and Aurier.

 

[UncleBuck]

No matter what team we put out tonight we were always going to struggle to get a result.
Their players were always going to find an extra three gears against any Jose team that rocked up at their place, expect them to go down by 4 or 5 against citeh at the weekend...

 

[Saoirse]

I still find this a very interesting appointment. Mourinho's forte is getting the best out of a top-end squad, whether that's an existing one with players underachieving, sending lots of money, or bringing in older players cheaply. That isn't our situation. Our squad isn't good enough to win the CL or PL without major luck (which we did have last season), and we're not just looking for short-term success. This is a rebuild job, creating a top squad from younger talent with big but not galactico money. It's not something he's had to do since his earliest days.

That being said, I'm an optimist and I do think it's possible. Especially if his good attitude so far sticks, and he's able to get buy-in from younger talent. Today was a disappointment, but he's won three games from four with a squad where previously you couldn't see where the next three points were coming from, and looked good doing it too. Many players are struggling for fitness, don't want to be here or are simply past it - for an effort at turning them around mid-season it's been far from bad.

Looking forwards, I'd say there's two big questions to answer in relation to our regression since 2017. Firstly, what's gone wrong with transfers - why haven't players been moved on, why haven't we found those talented youngsters, and how did we end up buying nobody at all? Secondly, what's gone wrong with fitness - why have Wanyama and Dembele ended up permacrocked, Lamela even worse, Rose and Kane badly effected, Trippier supposedly having an awful season because of his groin etc.

I love Poch, but I love the club more. So hopefully the answer to both those questions is that he and his team were given lots of authority and license on the back of their success and made a pig's ear of it off the pitch, in which case we should soon see an improvement. The first bit of evidence isn't great here though, with more messing around on the Davies surgery question. Regardless of the answer and therefore just how hard a task he has in store, I'll be fascinated to see whether Jose's got it in him, and hope he learns from today, we progress from here and enjoy renewed success.COYS

 

[Joely]

The team has some glaring weaknesses, players that simply cannot be relied upon to produce game after game to get you consistently challenging. That doesn't make them awful, useless players but they are not good enough for where we want to be imo.

Aurier, Sissoko, Sanchez (done well recently but has a habit of having a brain fart which leads to trouble and until he shakes that off, just cannot fully trust him), Winks, Davies, Dier, Rose. In the cold light of day, none of them are top quality and range from poor to ordinary, maybe decentish with the ability to have some good games in a season. Even Moura....capable of having some great games, but I question whether he is going to produce week in week out.

Mourinho will want players players who not only have quality but can also be depended upon to produce week after week throughout the course of the season and unless that changes with the ones named above, I'm not too sure how long they last.

 

[SpartanSpur]

Utd had that Mourinho big game DNA tonight, he basically alluded to it in his presser. He hasn't had a chance to stamp that mentality on us yet.

We saw the same mental issues today that we had before. Switching off at the wrong times to concede soft goals and hand the initiative to the other team. That 2nd goal totally killed us. That's not something you can fix too quickly.

The defence and CM is a huge issue for us currently. Hopefully that's the last we see of the Winks/Sissoko combo for a while. Problem is the options are looking poor in CM especially. Davies injury was really unfortunate as this new LB role was tailor made for him.

Hoping for a reaction at the weekend now, can't let these kind of performances set in. Tonight was so frustrating hardly laying a glove on them.

Mourinho seems to be picking these issues out, let's hope he can resolve them.

 

[dontcallme]

I openly admit this is a completely reactionary thought but Jose has regularly been portrayed as a manager who plays boring football.

Tonight was a big match at Old Trafford and made for 433, bunch the midfield and double up on Rashford.

Nothing wrong with negative football sometimes and I hope Jose doesn't set us up wrong to counter his negative portrayal.

Pretty sure this thought is just a reaction to tonight's loss.

 

[Ionman34]

You can be behind him and still criticise his decision if you don't agree with them. This is a discussion forum after all, not a cheerleading one.

There’s criticism then there’s outright vitriol from those just waiting for the first loss.

One loss and he’s a “fraud?”

Jesus wept.

 

[SpartanSpur]

I openly admit this is a completely reactionary thought but Jose has regularly been portrayed as a manager who plays boring football.

Tonight was a big match at Old Trafford and made for 433, bunch the midfield and double up on Rashford.

Nothing wrong with negative football sometimes and I hope Jose doesn't set us up wrong to counter his negative portrayal.

Pretty sure this thought is just a reaction to tonight's loss.

I suspect he's not convinced this squad can currently put in those kind of disciplined displays until he gets more time on the training ground with them. So it's more just trying to iterate on Poch right now, and thus far the improved attacking had been getting us results.

I'd have happily seen a more cautious setup today. We played entirely into Utds hands all game.

 

[Shadydan]

There’s criticism then there’s outright vitriol from those just waiting for the first loss.

One loss and he’s a “fraud?”

Jesus wept.

Dumb but unfortunately not surprising.

 

[cliff jones]

Disappointing from Jose tonight.

Winks and Sissoko; Eriksen first change; and little attacking intent shown till their time wasting properly kicked in. He can't undo the individual errors but he could have realised that this is not a formidable Utd side and therefore did not need to show them the amount of respect he did.

But at least he made changes in the end, and we live in hope he will get the balance right over time.

Burnley will be tough as always, and the defensive players will have to do better. Can we at least not have to score 3 to actually win a game...

 

[Joely]

Wasn't happy with the way we went about thinks tonight. Felt like a performance where we put aside our own strengths and set the team up to target their weakness. Only problem being they saw it early on and stopped it at source.

Again for all the talk of Mourinho making changes to his style coming into this job, fundamentally he is a pragmatic manager and that is not going to change and will override everything else. Will definitely win us matches and quite possibly a trophy. Obviously very early days and far too early to make any big judgements but today the way we setup and played really reminded me of some games Utd played under Mourinho.

 

[Stamford]

The guy is looking like a fraud right now.

One of the best managers ever in the game is a fraud. What an embarrassment of a statement.

 

[Phomesy]

Poch was right - we need a painful rebuild.

Pointing out that Poch was right doesn't mean Mourinho isn't capable of doing that job.

Of course he is.

But maybe some people can just slow down with their shitting all over the Poch era.

And maybe some people can think twice before shitting all over the Mourinho era before he's even had a chance.

Onions.

 

[Gb160]

One of the best managers ever in the game is a fraud. What an embarrassment of a statement.

Its possibly the stupidest post I've ever read on SC... and yes, I'm aware of exactly how high that bar is.

 

[ClintEastwould]

Its possibly the stupidest post I've ever read on SC... and yes, I'm aware of exactly how high that bar is.

My name is not “that bar” mate

 

[piedpiper]

Can't get my head around this at all.

It is what it is mate... I Just feel disconnected. Do you expect that we all have the herd mentality... I'm just not as enthusiastic about his appointment.

 

[richard_gleeson]

His comments about being reactive were spot on. It's like they were waiting for things to happen.