Sam Allardyce believes that Jose Mourinho is still dealing with the hangover from Louis van Gaal’s time at Manchester United.
Mourinho has come in for plenty of criticism after United fell to a 3-2 defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday afternoon but Allardyce wasn’t so quick to jump down Mourinho’s throat.
The former England manager believes that Mourinho is making the most out of a squad which is not yet his own and has pointed the finger of blame at his predecessor.
Allardyce thinks Van Gaal’s decision to splash out on Anthony Martial in 2015 has proven to be a complete disaster and now Mourinho is paying the price.
“You look at Van Gaal, who brought in Martial. It doesn’t matter who the manager is, Martial’s not good enough for Manchester United,” Allardyce told BeIN Sports.
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“If you want to be super critical and look at the players that he’s got, Martial is not the player they thought they were getting or could develop into.
“There was a chance, where you’ve got a very big young talent, supposedly, for £50 million and compared to his first season, he’s no better now than when he first came. He should have progressed and should be as good as [Leroy] Sane or [Raheem] Sterling at Manchester City. That’s not Jose’s fault.”
Martial found himself in Mourinho’s bad books over the summer after the French forward failed to return back to United’s pre-season training squad after travelling to Paris for the birth of his son.
Last week, Mourinho confirmed that Martial is the only player that has ever been fined during his time in charge at Old Trafford.
“I’m here for two years and a couple of months and the only player that was fined was Anthony Martial, so it is not easy to be fined here,” Mourinho said.
