It was always going to be this way.
Jose Mourinho’s time at Manchester United is over, and it will be remembered as a complete waste of time. It ended as so many predicted it would – the Portuguese coach was forced out of the club after failing to deliver the success he was supposed to bring.
United are languishing in sixth-place with the largest wage bill in the Premier League. Considering a club’s wage bill is the key indicator of their position in the table, this is a shambolic return.
Under Mourinho, the fare on the pitch was putrid. United didn’t play “good” football or “bad” football. It was anti-football. They meekly waited for an opposition mistake but never attempted to force an error or take the initiative.
Mourinho’s team were a luxury version of Stoke City under Mark Hughes or Alan Pardew’s Crystal Palace. At their worst, they had become as bad to watch, and as confusing, as Martin O’Neill’s Republic of Ireland team.
They played without identity, intensity or any attacking intent. It was embarrassing.
Mourinho was a terrible fit for a club with United’s attacking traditions. But that was never the real issue – United’s football principles aren’t as strongly defined as some other European clubs, such as Ajax and Barcelona. The problem wasn’t that Mourinho’s way contradicted the principles of the past, but that his approach wasn’t capable of delivering success now or in the future.
No other top side played like his United team and with good reason. They didn’t press the opposition, there were no discernible attacking patterns of play and even at their best, their football was stodgy.
The ball never went through central midfield, possession was surrendered and the team attempted to nick a result through a set-piece or a moment of inspiration.
Something I wrote in February 2016 about why Mourinho was a terrible fit for Man United and why Pochettino was the perfect candidate.#MUFC https://t.co/OlO0T3pHyd
— Robert Redmond (@RobRedmond10) December 18, 2018
Mourinho’s peak as United coach – the 2017 Europa League final win over Ajax – best summed up this approach. United willingly ceded possession to a young Ajax side and scored from a deflection and a corner. They won the match in moments, not through a coherent plan designed to bring out the best qualities of the players in the squad.
It was dubbed a “pragmatic” performance, but in reality, it wasn’t. United remained in their own half for the entire game, even when they were 2-0 up against a talented but lightweight team. Mourinho showed he had become dogmatic, not pragmatic.
He was wedded to his ideas of anti-football, unwilling to take risks. It was fearful football, a passive, fatalistic approach that was no longer fit for purpose at the very top level of the sport.
However, the warning signs were there long before his appointment. They were ignored by the club’s decision makers and countless supporters of the club. There is no merit in saying Mourinho would fail at Old Trafford.
It was always going to be this way.
🚨MOURINHO SACKED #THEFOOTBALLSPIN REACTION SPECIAL🚨
⚽ José booted👢
⚽ Pogba’s post👺
⚽ Give it t’Giggseh to end of season? 🤷#TheFootballSpin w/ @DionFanning @PaddyMcKenna @RobRedmond & @MattStanger in Manchester is out now.Listen here: https://t.co/1TbwM5Uxl7
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) December 18, 2018
United needs to hit reset, to start acting like a football club. They need a director of football, a purpose and some ideas beyond merely signing famous footballers. They need Mauricio Pochettino as the new manager. There shouldn’t even be another candidate. They will need at least six months to try to convince him to leave all his brilliant work at Tottenham behind. It’s a lot to give up to coach Phil Jones.
Meanwhile, Mourinho has gone from being the sharp pragmatist to a dour doctrinarian.
The youthful, charismatic coach that took English and European football by storm gradually morphed into a grumpy middle-aged man, incapable of connecting with a new generation of players, he became increasingly wedded to his ideas of how the game should be played.
Jose Mourinho sums up exactly where Manchester United have gone wrong over the last few years | @RobRedmond10 https://t.co/MAAeVwuzg7
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) December 3, 2018
This was shown in his refusal to drop an out of form Nemanja Matic, a lumbering presence in central midfield who was overrun by significantly smaller and more skilful midfielders in the loss to Manchester City earlier this season.
Mourinho was like a middle-aged man refusing to upgrade his Nokia 3310 while his contemporaries had long moved on to a sleek smartphone.
Something I wrote about Mourinho and United in July 2017. I’m not sure why anyone is surprised at how it has played out. https://t.co/RLAdntg7Um
— Robert Redmond (@RobRedmond10) September 29, 2018
Mourinho’s peak years, between 2003 and 2010, came in another era for football.
He established himself as a top coach before Guardiola, Barcelona and Spain’s dominance, back when midfield was the land of the giants and physicality ruled.
The revolution in 2008 hardened Mourinho. He came to embody the antithesis of Guardiola’s passing, progressive, pressing football, rather than seeking to adapt. When German football tinkered with Spain’s approach and incorporated pressing at an intense level, Mourinho remained unmoved.
He stuck to what had made him successful in the past.
He was the top coach in the world at a time when Greece could grind out winning the European Championships, or when Michael Essien, not David Silva, was football’s idea of an elite central midfielder.
The experience of being questioned and disrespected by the Real Madrid players appears to have broken something.
Unlike Alex Ferguson, Mourinho failed to adapt and didn’t even appear to try.
Like Principal Skinner, he wasn’t out of touch, it was the children that were wrong.
Something I wrote about Mkhitaryan and Bergkamp… https://t.co/gXVvsack63
— Robert Redmond (@RobRedmond10) January 24, 2018
As with Real Madrid and Chelsea, United’s most high-profile players had grown weary of him. Mourinho tried to identify the “virus” in the dressing room, the way he looked for the “mole” in the Madrid dressing room, or the “rat” in the Chelsea camp.
However, Mourinho was the problem, not the players.
This is the third time he has been driven out of a club. The third time he has had a third season meltdown. Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that he will recognise this and adapt his approach in his next job.
Mourinho started his career in coaching as a PE teacher with disabled children. With no pedigree from a great playing career, and the status that comes with it, he conquered world football, becoming the most famous and successful coach of his generation.
If he wasn’t so belligerent, his downfall would be sad. Maybe it is, but it’s difficult to feel any sympathy for him.
