Listen, the debate will rumble on until Manchester United are challenging for the league next year. Did they have a good season?
Two trophies, the fans will argue. Champions League qualification, they’ll point to. Who gives a toss outside of that?
But Mourinho’s critics will continue to point to the level of performance and say that the football wasn’t good enough.
They’ll, perhaps rightly, acknowledge that they came fifth last season and won an FA Cup with a squad that didn’t include Paul Pogba and Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Wednesday’s goal heroes) or Eric Bailly and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
They’re in the Champions League for next season though and they’ll have another shitload of money to spend.
After the game, the manager said in no uncertain terms that he will be holidaying until July 8. He also said, more importantly, that Ed Woodward can holiday in August. After he’s brought in a whole pile of new superstars, of course.
Customary dig at @Arsenal from Mourinho#MUFC pic.twitter.com/WUXHEzcVLS
— Conán Doherty (@ConanDoherty) May 24, 2017
Perhaps the biggest gripe against the United boss though is how negatively he sets his sides up. No-one will care this week but the facts are they were operating with 33 per cent of the ball at a stage against a pretty mediocre Ajax.
All the begrudgers say that Mourinho doesn’t go out to win games. They set up, purely, to not lose them. Most of the time against inferior opposition, you’ll still win them because you have some of the best players in the world. The question remains though if they will ever be good enough to push United beyond a Europa League, a League Cup and sixth place.
Chris Smalling disagreed with the idea that they don’t go out to win though. He said, in fact, there was no other option coming to Stockholm on Wednesday. No other option but win.
