Manchester United’s season has hit a slump.
Jose Mourinho’s team had an excellent start to the season. Heading into the October international break, they were level on points with Manchester City and had recorded several resounding victories over sides such as West Ham and Swansea. They gained 19 points from their first seven games. However, since the goalless draw with Liverpool at Anfield at the start of October, United have gained just 24 points from the subsequent 13 games.
Defeats to Huddersfield Town, Chelsea and City have seen Mourinho’s side slip 12 points behind their noisy neighbours, who can extend their lead at the top of the table to 15 points on Wednesday night against Newcastle United. The title race is all but over and there are worrying signs for Mourinho and United fans.
The former Chelsea manager has criticised the atmosphere at Old Trafford in his programme notes, hit out at his players and, following the 2-2 draw with Burnley at Old Trafford on Tuesday, said the club needs to spend more money in the transfer market in order to compete with City. We have seen Mourinho behave like this at Real Madrid and Chelsea, and his departure from both clubs followed soon after.
How the rest of the season pans out remains to be seen, and it is quite possible United could finish the campaign with silverware. But what is in no doubt is that Mourinho won’t change. He won’t change his approach in big matches, he’ll continue to say things to deflect from his team’s poor results and his side won’t ever play the expansive, attacking football deployed by City.
United fans appear to have accepted this, as long as it brings success, and according to Dwight Yorke, Sir Alex Ferguson doesn’t expect the club’s manager to change his approach. The former United striker has said that Ferguson accepts Mourinho’s tactics.
“He’s done that type of stuff as a manager throughout his career,” Yorke said on beIN Sports, referring to Mourinho’s cautious approach in matches against his direct rivals.
“He’s been very successful doing it this way. I had this conversation with Sir Alex last week, and he can’t see him changing because if you’re successful this way, why would you want to change?”
Maybe you would want to change because the approach that brought success in the past is longer as effective as it was?
You can watch Yorke, along with Andy Gray and Ian Rush, speak about Mourinho and United here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=429&v=n-m4UaETYiA
