{"id":71065,"date":"2018-03-26T21:45:06","date_gmt":"2018-03-27T01:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonfootball.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=71065"},"modified":"2026-03-15T13:51:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T17:51:31","slug":"mourinho-isnt-the-man-to-fix-manchester-united","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2018\/03\/26\/mourinho-isnt-the-man-to-fix-manchester-united\/","title":{"rendered":"Mourinho isn&#8217;t the man to fix Manchester United"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Mourinho isn&#8217;t the man to fix Manchester United<\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s a difficult season for Manchester United as they\u2019ve seen arch-rivals Manchester City enjoy a magnificent campaign, putting Pep Guardiola\u2019s side amongst the best Premier League teams ever, and it\u2019s left the Red Devils battling to simply be the best of the rest.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, Jose Mourinho\u2019s side have struggled to find the consistency to do that and now find themselves just four points above fifth-placed Tottenham Hotspur, whilst a goalless draw in a Champions League trip to Andalusia against Sevilla hasn\u2019t fanned the flames.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A growing sense of frustration has emerged at Old Trafford with Mourinho\u2019s negative approach being widely criticised, with many pointing out that former boss Louis Van Gaal was subject to intense scrutiny for his defensive approach.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For what it\u2019s worth, Mourinho is the latest manager to be handed a Manchester United side that\u2019s screaming out for a revival as they look to get back to the top after the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson. However, the Portuguese boss isn\u2019t the right man to provide a fix.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>The Pogba problem<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It should come as no surprise to supporters that Mourinho has reportedly fallen out with club record signing Paul Pogba, as the manager has a history of clashing with big names- from Cesc Fabregas at Chelsea to Sergio Ramos and Iker Casillas at Real Madrid.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mourinho thrives on being the talk of the town, as he\u2019s always determined to ensure it\u2019s his name in the back pages and wants the attention taken off his team. For the most part it\u2019s worked, particularly in his first spell with Chelsea, but football has changed since- and it\u2019s never going to work with Pogba.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From the \u2018Pogback\u2019 social media campaign that was launched upon Pogba\u2019s return to Old Trafford to the emoji launched prior to the game against Liverpool last season, Pogba is the modern David Beckham- a player whose brand is important to both the French international and Manchester United as a whole.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s not the player\u2019s fault that he\u2019s been thrusted into the limelight, though he certainly thrives with that, as Manchester United have continuously pushed Pogba\u2019s presence- and Mourinho is the only player not to get on board.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whenever Pogba doesn\u2019t make the side, social media is awash with questions and criticisms regarding his exclusion. When he does play, he isn\u2019t utilised in the best way and it\u2019s limited his involvement for the club.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Lack of transfer policy<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Amidst the Pogba problems is a fairly strange transfer policy adopted by Mourinho and Manchester United, with the Red Devils boss not afraid to spend heavily but certainly raising questions regarding his activity in the market.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Eyebrows were raised when Zlatan Ibrahimovic was signed on a free transfer, after a spectacular <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/2017\/12\/14\/premier-league-young-player\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">breakthrough year from Marcus Rashford<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and the England international was pushed further down the pecking order last summer following the capture of Romelu Lukaku.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That led to Rashford being pushed into a wide area, facing competition with Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial for starting opportunities, but the <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.manutd.com\/en\/News-And-Features\/Football-News\/2018\/Jan\/official-announcement-of-Alexis-Sanchez-signing-for-Manchester-United.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">arrival of Alexis Sanchez in January<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> gave the 20-year-old more hurdles to overcome.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The concern is now that Rashford could follow in the footsteps of Danny Welbeck and indeed Pogba himself, forced out of the door due to a lack of consistent opportunities and continued frustrations- especially in the post-World Cup era where he looks to establish himself as a key player for the Three Lions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Again, this shouldn\u2019t be too much of a surprise on Mourinho\u2019s part considering he\u2019s never been a manager that is renowned for developing young talents and he\u2019s earned a reputation for letting players go too soon- Lukaku, Kevin De Bruyne and Mohamed Salah being examples of that from his time at Chelsea.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>United\u2019s requirements<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For all the talk about Manchester City\u2019s domination in the Premier League, one thing that\u2019s often overlooked is the Citizens approach. Whilst they <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/2018\/01\/04\/manchester-city-outspending\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">do splash millions<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the transfer market, Pep Guardiola has also inherited a side that is being built for greater success- and links with the youth team are key.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Manchester United had that for years with Sir Alex Ferguson, who managed the club valiantly from top to bottom, and the departure of the great Scotsman left numerous holes to be plugged- and Mourinho was never going to be the man to oversee those changes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mourinho is a manager that\u2019s very good and fixing the small problems at a club, then leading them to success. That can easily be seen very <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">reflected in the bookies odds<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. What he\u2019s unable to do is provide sweeping changes across the board, oversee a complete redevelopment of the transfer strategy and lead to swift, attacking play on the field.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Manchester United should have known this when they approached Mourinho and they now find themselves in a sticky situation. Anything from now until the end of the season will simply be damage limitation and major problems could emerge next year, when the Portuguese boss enters his cursed third year in charge. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main image credit:<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"fnH01f9ESdpF-B8qsJc38w\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/933189702\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'fnH01f9ESdpF-B8qsJc38w',sig:'gLWXhj03U4Zb0TJ8dEDG5sfy88fsVTlaYS5YQmI4M2c=',w:'594px',h:'404px',items:'933189702',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mourinho isn&#8217;t the man to fix Manchester United It\u2019s a difficult season for Manchester United as they\u2019ve seen arch-rivals Manchester City enjoy a magnificent campaign, putting Pep Guardiola\u2019s side amongst the best Premier League teams ever, and it\u2019s left the Red Devils battling to simply be the best of the rest. However, Jose Mourinho\u2019s side [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1806,"featured_media":71112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,18,3],"tags":[138,36,140,40],"class_list":["post-71065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-manchester-united","category-premier-league","tag-jose-mourinho","tag-manchester-united","tag-paul-pogba","tag-premier-league"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1806"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71065"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":666486,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71065\/revisions\/666486"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}