United Corner- Papering Over the Cracks (October 19th 2018)
Things were looking pretty bleak two weeks ago when Manchester United trailed Newcastle United 0-2 at half time of the final Premier League game before the international break.
Rumours had been rampant that Jose Mourinho was on the brink of being sacked and the atmosphere turned pretty toxic inside Old Trafford.
My stand is the East and things turned from shock to anger through the course of the first half, but importantly that anger has tended to be focused on the board and especially 'Dick 'Ed Woodward' who looks to be the main cause of a lack of investment made in the playing staff this past summer.
That is not something that will be lost on the manager, who it has been suggested leaked the rumour that he was about to be sacked, and I think it will have given Mourinho a real boost.
Coming back from 0-2 down at home to win late in the game will help, but it is always going to paper over some of the cracks and in the cold light of day it has become clear that this is going to be perhaps an even tougher season than the most negative of United fans would have imagined.
Mourinho warned this was going to be the case if he didn't get the players he wanted and it is still surprising to think Woodward didn't think Toby Alderweireld was going to be an upgrade on players like Chris Smalling and Phil Jones. However I do think Mourinho was talking from the point of view of challenging for the Premier League title and he would not be expecting Manchester United to fall out of the top four in the table.
Instead there is the feeling that even a top four place is going to be tough to achieve for the club with the current group they have. Unlike last season, David De Gea has not made the stunning saves to prevent Manchester United dropping points in games and the overachievement of finishing 2nd in the League table may actually have been a long term detriment to Mourinho and the club.
It certainly gave the board more optimism than they should had as they try and 'cheap' their way into the Champions League. That has almost all been eroded and things could look that much tougher by the end of this next set of games leading up to the November international break.
In that time Manchester United have to visit Chelsea, Bournemouth and Manchester City in the Premier League and all three clubs are above United in the League table. There is also a double header with Juventus to come in the Champions League and I can't help think Manchester United should have made more from the fixture list they had over the first couple of months of the season.
With that in mind it does feel the win over Newcastle United in early October is going to be little more than one of the last 'good' days under the management of Mourinho. Barring a real upturn in form I can see the pressure reaching a intolerable high by the time the next international break rolls around and I won't be surprised if the manager is gone before the end of this calendar year and perhaps as early as mid-November.
I don't really blame Jose Mourinho for the misfortunes of United as much as I do the players who are trying to exert their power much like the ones at Chelsea and Leicester City have done in recent years.
However I am not of the belief that Mourinho doesn't at least deserve some blame for how this season has begun.
Regardless of what his supporters think, I do believe his tactics are out-dated and the manager is simply not able to cope with the high press that so many clubs are playing with these days. The defence is not good enough for the way Mourinho wants to set his teams up, but the lack of cohesion in the final third between his players is on the manager.
I am not someone who looks back on the end of the Sir Alex Ferguson era with rose-tinted glasses because there were a number of times when the football wasn't great, but that group of players had a winning mentality instilled in them. That allowed United to turn around games when they fell behind, but this current crop is simply not good enough and not supporting Mourinho in the transfer market just seems to be a completely baffling move from the board.
If they don't want to support him they should sack him, but instead the club is left in some kind of limbo as they continue to fall some way short of the marker set by Manchester City.
That's a gap that looks like it will only get bigger this season with 7 points already between United and what looks to be progressive rivals in Liverpool and Manchester City... And personally I only see that being a few more points bigger by the time we hit the November international break.
One reason I don't want Mourinho to be sacked is I don't want the players to feel they can down tools whenever they are upset with a manager in the future. That would be the biggest mistake in an era of mistakes made by Dick 'Ed, but the situation may be untenable if United suffer through the tough fixture list coming up over the next month.
It still feels like a matter of time before Mourinho is moved on and Manchester United will be back to square one with their haphazard recruiting, which seems to be based on tracking players Manchester City have been linked with, and also Dick 'Ed will be picking his fourth manager since Sir Alex Ferguson retired.
I do think Mourinho would have had considerably more success if he had taken over immediately after Sir Alex retired and the transition from the long-term manager into the new era may have been more comfortable. Now United fans have had to support three managers who look to have been out of their depth or past their sell by date.
So where would I go from here? If it was a short term appointment I would actually consider Arsene Wenger who could instil a positive brand of football at the very least.
However like Louis Van Gaal and Mourinho, Wenger may have seen his best days pass him by and instead I would perhaps consider Roberto Martinez as someone who could be prized away from his current team.
Diego Simeone would be a popular choice, while Antonio Conte has had success in the Premier League, but I don't see the former leaving Atletico Madrid and the latter may not want to work in the constraints that saw his time with Chelsea strained at the end.
Martinez is a manager who likes to play attacking football, although his defensive work can be questioned. However this looks to be an era when attacking football is paying off spectacularly and Martinez could employ a style where attack is the best form of defence for Manchester United.
He has experience of the Premier League in his time with Wigan Athletic and Everton and while he didn't have the best success with the latter Martinez could have learned from the mistakes he made. Importantly he has won silverware in England unlike David Moyes and the work being done with Belgium has to be respected.
I am not sure Martinez would get the excitement levels of the fans moving too much on his appointment, but the style of play will quickly erase the doubters around him. For the first time in years the football would be enjoyable and the Spaniard would be my surprise choice to take over.
The next manager has to be someone who knows the Premier League and plays the kind of football the fans are craving. Martinez does tick both boxes and I think he could have some real success with United especially with some of the young, attacking players already at the club.
Ideally this will all be a moot point and United can win at Stamford Bridge, the Vitality Stadium and at the Etihad Stadium while doing the double over Juventus in the Champions League.
I would love that to be the case.
It feels more like a hope than a real belief though and the pressure could return on Mourinho immediately out of the international break if United were to lose at Stamford Bridge.
Things do need to change at Old Trafford from the very top of the club, but at this time it is the manager who is going to be the scapegoat for the performances and it does feel the Newcastle United win only papered over the obvious cracks.
Hopefully Jose Mourinho is going into the November international break with some real positive momentum behind him, but the manager looks unhappy, the players look lost around the tactics and the fans are getting more and more irritated by the performances of the board.
It all feels toxic around United despite the win last time out and I can only see it all coming to a head in the weeks coming up.
If they don't want to support him they should sack him, but instead the club is left in some kind of limbo as they continue to fall some way short of the marker set by Manchester City.
That's a gap that looks like it will only get bigger this season with 7 points already between United and what looks to be progressive rivals in Liverpool and Manchester City... And personally I only see that being a few more points bigger by the time we hit the November international break.
One reason I don't want Mourinho to be sacked is I don't want the players to feel they can down tools whenever they are upset with a manager in the future. That would be the biggest mistake in an era of mistakes made by Dick 'Ed, but the situation may be untenable if United suffer through the tough fixture list coming up over the next month.
It still feels like a matter of time before Mourinho is moved on and Manchester United will be back to square one with their haphazard recruiting, which seems to be based on tracking players Manchester City have been linked with, and also Dick 'Ed will be picking his fourth manager since Sir Alex Ferguson retired.
I do think Mourinho would have had considerably more success if he had taken over immediately after Sir Alex retired and the transition from the long-term manager into the new era may have been more comfortable. Now United fans have had to support three managers who look to have been out of their depth or past their sell by date.
So where would I go from here? If it was a short term appointment I would actually consider Arsene Wenger who could instil a positive brand of football at the very least.
However like Louis Van Gaal and Mourinho, Wenger may have seen his best days pass him by and instead I would perhaps consider Roberto Martinez as someone who could be prized away from his current team.
Diego Simeone would be a popular choice, while Antonio Conte has had success in the Premier League, but I don't see the former leaving Atletico Madrid and the latter may not want to work in the constraints that saw his time with Chelsea strained at the end.
Martinez is a manager who likes to play attacking football, although his defensive work can be questioned. However this looks to be an era when attacking football is paying off spectacularly and Martinez could employ a style where attack is the best form of defence for Manchester United.
He has experience of the Premier League in his time with Wigan Athletic and Everton and while he didn't have the best success with the latter Martinez could have learned from the mistakes he made. Importantly he has won silverware in England unlike David Moyes and the work being done with Belgium has to be respected.
I am not sure Martinez would get the excitement levels of the fans moving too much on his appointment, but the style of play will quickly erase the doubters around him. For the first time in years the football would be enjoyable and the Spaniard would be my surprise choice to take over.
The next manager has to be someone who knows the Premier League and plays the kind of football the fans are craving. Martinez does tick both boxes and I think he could have some real success with United especially with some of the young, attacking players already at the club.
Ideally this will all be a moot point and United can win at Stamford Bridge, the Vitality Stadium and at the Etihad Stadium while doing the double over Juventus in the Champions League.
I would love that to be the case.
It feels more like a hope than a real belief though and the pressure could return on Mourinho immediately out of the international break if United were to lose at Stamford Bridge.
Things do need to change at Old Trafford from the very top of the club, but at this time it is the manager who is going to be the scapegoat for the performances and it does feel the Newcastle United win only papered over the obvious cracks.
Hopefully Jose Mourinho is going into the November international break with some real positive momentum behind him, but the manager looks unhappy, the players look lost around the tactics and the fans are getting more and more irritated by the performances of the board.
It all feels toxic around United despite the win last time out and I can only see it all coming to a head in the weeks coming up.
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