The role which tends to bring Jose Mourinho greatest joy these days is the destroyer of other people’s dreams.
Nothing energises him like the prospect of beating, say, Liverpool, as he did at Anfield in 2014, or Antonio Conte’s Chelsea at Old Trafford.
On these occasions, Mourinho rejoices as he proves once again that anyone can be beaten and nobody is invincible. When Chelsea are defeated or Liverpool are stopped, this can seem like a triumph almost as rewarding as tangible success for his own team.
But these are temporary reprieves from the reality of life. Most of the time Mourinho seems haunted by the idea that anyone can be beaten and nobody is invincible.
In Stockholm, United will play a young Ajax side which is daring and full of hope. In the role he will cast himself in, Mourinho will think this is the perfect scenario. He can deny Ajax their dreams, while also making a point about the type of football his opponents play.
If he triumphs, as Manchester United should, then many will say nothing else matters. Winning, after all, is the most important Manchester United tradition of all. If United win, there will be many who will insist the good times are back at Old Trafford, that Mourinho has restored confidence in the club after the wilderness years.
Yet Manchester United under Mourinho are so paralysed by fear that Ajax may find that taking risks becomes no risk at all.
Mourinho’s gameplan is known to everyone and it won’t alter. He will explain the tactical thinking behind it if United win, but it is already in the public domain. United will look to score and then to play without the ball. As they showed against Celta Vigo, Manchester United in 2017 are testing Mourinho’s belief in the effectiveness of playing without the ball.
As Manchester United retreated on Thursday night, the flip side of Mourinho’s core message played itself out again. United surrendered territory and possession. They were fearful and hesitant as if they had absorbed the manager’s warnings that the world was a dangerous place where bad things can happen at any time.
This timidity is the key characteristic in Manchester United under Mourinho. He was once a manager of limitless ambition, even if the means he achieved it always emphasised destruction. Now his destructiveness works as forcefully on his own team as the opposition.
In October, Mourinho showed how teams with no ambition could restrict Liverpool when United held them to a scoreless draw at Anfield. “They are not the great wonder of the world,” he said afterwards.
But the only person who thought they were – or sent his team out to play as if Liverpool were – was Jose Mourinho. Afterwards, it was time to disseminate the key message: anybody can be stopped.
But if anyone can be stopped, everyone must be feared. United took one point from two games this season against an Arsenal side that is usually too willing to find a way to lose this season. Mourinho has lamented his side’s failure to take chances this season. Mourinho talks about the need for his side to score goals, to finish off chances, but when it there are opportunities for his side to show real ambition – and that is not at home to Burnley or Stoke or Swansea – they are incapable of it, Instead they peer through a crack in the door, worried about what they will encounter in the world.
If we have learned anything from Manchester United this season, it is that Jose Mourinho fears everybody. He can show passion after a victory and trash talk before and after the game, but things change when his side takes the field.
Manchester United fans are celebrating reaching the Europa League final, but a club which spent £150 million to challenge for the title last summer shouldn’t crumble as they did because of a long injury list.
When Mourinho left Chelsea, the supporters mobilised, turning the first match after his dismissal into a search for those players who had betrayed the leader. In the relative tranquility of the post-Mourinho era, many of those supporters may prefer to forget these protests.
On Friday night, Antonio Conte celebrated with his players who talked about unity and spirit within the squad. Where there had been palpable discord under Mourinho, there was now harmony.
There is only one certainty left wherever Jose Mourinho manages: this will all happen again. Where there is harmony, he will bring discord, but usually, the pay-off is that he also brings success.
Two cups this season would be defined as that and on Thursday night, he delighted United supporters by his display of passion after they knocked out Celta Vigo.
When Mourinho took the job, he did so surrounded by a lot of noise about the Manchester United way. There was always only going to be one way: Jose Mourinho’s.
And that way has become increasingly reductive. Like many managers, he believes if you can’t win, don’t lose. Mourinho now goes further: even if you can win, don’t risk it…just don’t lose.
In the summer, boosted by the massive investment the club will make, United can anticipate a title challenge next season. But the money they spend will be the key to unlocking the door. Mourinho will be the man with the chain on who is always worried what will happen if he takes it off and steps outside.
