Who said Manchester United couldn’t entertain under José Mourinho?
When United closed down the game at Anfield last Monday, it was generally agreed that Mourinho’s methods would from now on guarantee a certain solidity as they took effect at the club.
Within 30 seconds at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, that seemed another aspect of Mourinho’s management style that could no longer confidently be said to exist.
The manager who once inspired blind loyalty from his players has, of late, appeared to be no more than one defeat away from an estrangement; the coach who believed only in winning has started to take consolations in other results; now Mourinho, the man who believes in nothing except the reduction of risk and the denial of space, concedes four goals as he returns to Stamford Bridge.
Some will point to the game in November 2010 when Barcelona beat Real Madrid 5-0 as an example of how these things happen from time to time. But that was against one of the greatest teams the world has ever seen, a claim nobody has made about Antonio Conte’s Chelsea just yet.
There is also a certain risk in anyone seeking to defend Mourinho by pointing to his time at Madrid which, despite some success, has come to represent the turning point in his career, the moment when the wizard is revealed to be a fearful man behind a curtain.
Mourinho brought success on his return to Chelsea too, but that’s not how his second spell will be remembered, something demonstrated again on Sunday as his old players drilled in goals. Some wondered if they had extra motivation against the man who left the club talking about how his work had been betrayed by the players.
Manchester United, like Madrid, like to believe certain things about themselves, but they will be tested now as Mourinho takes action, as presumably he will, against those who are not able to fulfil his demands.
Recent history at Chelsea provides some indication of what will happen in those circumstances and the performance by his former players on Sunday was also an example of how wearing Mourinho’s methods can be when things go wrong.
He could point to key moments in the game, like David Luiz getting away with a tackle which merited a red card, as events which didn’t help United, but underlying it all was a side which looked unable to fulfil any instructions in defence, midfield or attack.
Things are going wrong at Manchester United, but so far he is dealing with a problem he inherited, even if he was supposed to offer guarantees after a couple of years of drift.
Instead he is just another struggling Manchester United manager, a man trying to find a way in the post-Alex Ferguson world.
15-16: Van Gaal´s United first 14 games:
10 victories
01 draw
03 defeats
16-17: Mourinho:
8 victories
2 draws
4 defeats— MisterChip (English) (@MisterChiping) October 23, 2016
United spent £140 million in the summer but with Anthony Martial on the bench and Marcus Rashford starting as an auxiliary left-back, they still looked like a side that needs a forward.
Mourinho has not yet been able to overcome the fact that they are a squad assembled by many. Given time, power and control, he would surely deal with that, but the problem with Mourinho is that he burns himself out and those around him while trying to get the job done.
Mourinho may have encountered similar issues at Stamford Bridge and how he deals with familiar problems will define his time at Manchester United.
The game on Sunday was supposed to be about the return of the man who gave Chelsea some of their greatest moments, but what it demonstrated that, in the modern era, Mourinho is a manager without a natural home, a coach who no longer offers any guarantees.
Once players were devoted to him but now they know that if things go wrong, he may hold them responsible and things will invariably get ugly.
United’s defending was down to individual errors, particularly from Daley Blind and Chris Smalling, but the point of Mourinho’s methods is that they are supposed to eradicate individual errors by minimising risk.
He pointed to these individual errors afterwards and nobody could argue with his analysis, even if there was more to United’s defeat than just bad defending.
United were shambolic, a mess all over the pitch from Zlatan Ibrahimović up front to Paul Pogba and Marouane Fellaini in midfield, while the defence contained individuals making errors, but at such frequency that it could only be considered a collective failing.
Mourinho may be ruthless as he acts against those who he holds responsible for this result, but the clock is always ticking with him now. Mourinho cannot escape his own history, the knowledge of what happens in these situations and how it all ends.
He asks a lot of his players while demanding that they take no risks. It is an attritional style which may no longer function as it once did. Mourinho went home to Stamford Bridge on Sunday, but in the modern game, he looks like a coach who has no place left to go.
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