The seemingly inevitable has now happened.
After Manchester United’s 3-1 loss to arch-rivals
Liverpool, José Mourinho was fired as the Red Devils’ coach after just over two
years in the position.
To say that Mourinho’s time as United coach was turbulent
is an understatement.
Mourinho was known to have had personal issues with a
number of United players, including Paul Pogba, Anthony Martial, Alexis
Sánchez, and Andreas Pereira. He also clashed with vice-chairman Ed Woodward
over the money he was allocated for the purpose of signing players.
It cannot be said that Mourinho’s stint as United coach
was a complete failure, especially given the fact that the squad he had at his
disposal was not flooded with the sheer amount of talent that the likes of
Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, or Barcelona had. Second
place in the Premier League last season can be considered a success,
considering that they finished ahead of arguably more fancied teams such as
Chelsea and Tottenham. However, it must also be noted that in his first season
at United, Mourinho’s team only finished sixth in the league, only qualifying
for the Champions League by winning the much less prestigious and competitive
Europa League.
Although Mourinho’s time at the helm of United didn’t go
the way many a United fan had hoped, the reality is that this Manchester United
team was never the right fit for the Portuguese coach.
Consider all the other teams which experienced much
success under Mourinho. What did all of them have in common?
Every one of them was built around an elite playmaking
central midfielder – a player who was equally adept at playing the number 8 or
10 roles.
Mourinho had Deco on his roster at Porto, Frank Lampard
at Chelsea, Wesley Sneijder at Inter Milan, and Mesut Özil and Luka Modrić at
Real Madrid.
United do not have a player of such calibre in that
position. Juan Mata currently occupies that role, but, while a solid player, is
nowhere near the levels of the five players just mentioned.
Mourinho has also always favoured a defense-first
approach. Once again, his personnel at other clubs allowed him to do that with
ease, but not so at United.
He had Paulo Ferreira, Jorge Costa, and Ricardo Carvalho
at Porto. At Chelsea, he had John Terry, as well as Ferreira and Carvalho
again. His Inter Milan team had Javier Zanetti, Maicon, and Iván Cordoba. Then,
when he coached Real Madrid, he had Sergio Ramos and Marcelo on his roster.
United’s current backline is led by Luke Shaw and Victor
Lindelöf. That’s simply not going to cut it at the highest level.
To put it simply: this Manchester United team was not set
up to favour a coach like Mourinho.
Furthermore, as Mourinho has pointed out, the team has clearly
been hampered by the lack of signings made. Over the previous off-season,
United made three signings, all of whom have mostly been limited to the bench.
Diogo Dalot, Fred, and Lee Grant have combined for just 14 starts and five
substitute appearances this season. United stood still while their rivals moved
ahead and strengthened their teams by making key signings.
Of course, José Mourinho himself must shoulder a good
deal of the blame. Publicly airing his personal problems with his players was a
horrible look, and it clearly destabilized the team. To make matters worse,
three of the players he fell out with – Pogba, Sánchez, and Martial – are
arguably three of United’s four best players. A coach of Mourinho’s calibre and
experience ought to know that a team’s best players often have to be dealt with
differently. However, Mourinho clearly failed to get the memo, as far as his
interactions with his players are concerned. This played a major role in the
club’s making the decision to fire him.
No one should cast any doubt on Mourinho’s coaching
skill. With two Champions Leagues, eight league titles, four domestic cups, two
doubles, and a treble, he is, in my opinion, the greatest coach in football
history.
Despite his track record, though, his United stint never
came close to the heights he once hit, proving that no matter how great the
coach, if the coach doesn’t fit the club well, success will be difficult to
come by.
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