It wasn’t his night.
Manchester United were completely outclassed in Wednesday’s match against Tottenham at Wembley. A goal inside 11 seconds for the home side set the tone for a dismal evening for United.
With nothing going their way, Jose Mourinho tried to switch things up by throwing on his plan B, Marouane Fellaini in the second half, indicating that he would try to bypass the midfield battle and launch the ball straight to Fellaini’s chest.
But even the Belgain’s chaos factor could not disrupt Spurs’ flow. He found himself lost in the midfield battle, unable to make an impact. But despite his anonymous performance, it seemed harsh when Mourinho decided to take the player off only eight minutes after bringing him on.
Fellaini's match summed up… pic.twitter.com/cvInqHXRUY
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) January 31, 2018
Surely he was injured? Or is Jose losing the plot? Or both? No-one was sure. Fellaini began to hobble soon after he was brought on, but there were no signs of severe injury.
Mourinho had to do something to change the course of the game, and the Fellaini experiment failed to do that. On came Ander Herrera who, to absolutely no-one’s surprise, also failed to change the game.
Fellaini heading straight down the tunnel after he was taken off would indicate that maybe he had picked up a knock.
In his post match interview, Mourinho explained the decision, saying:
“He came off because he had something in his knee. Unlucky for him and unlucky for me. He came on with enthusiasm, but he has an injury in his ligament.”
It was a night to forget for Fellaini, Mourinho, Jones and every United fan watching their team capitulate to a very strong Spurs side.
