UP THE JUNCTION
Jose blames ‘those who weren’t pulling the train’ as toothless United go heading...
We miss easy chances and we push.. but a couple of players just disappear JOSE MOURINHO
JOSE MOURINHO has added several phrases to English football that have left us all smiling.
For example, he’s talked about parking buses and the quality of eggs at Waitrose.
After another frustrating afternoon at Old Trafford he exercised his imagination and pulled another out of thin air.
He split his team into two. Those who were ‘in front of the train, pulling it – and those who weren’t’.
In that second category he was referring to his forwards. Specifically, Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
And he threw them under the abovementioned rattler without hesitation.
He couldn’t nail opposition boss Tony Pulis, referee Mike Dean or anyone else as he suffered Groundhog Day.
Yes, the finger of blame for this blank was pointed at those charged with finding the net. After another one slipped away – add it to same list as Burnley, Stoke and Hull – he lost his cool. Frankly, it was probably about time. For when Mourinho looks back on this campaign, he won’t need an army of analysts to work out where this squad needs improvement.
No, advice from the startling array of boffins who populate Premier League clubs with their ubiquitous laptops will be totally unnecessary.
All he will need is a five-minute glance down the results and the truth will be staring back. He needs to find a way to break down opposition at Old Trafford.
However his team develops over the summer, that will be uppermost in his mind after Tony Pulis’ resilient and downright dogged bunch became the eighth this season to leave with a point.
Yes, there was no Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Juan Mata. But with the quality of the replacements at his disposal, Mourinho has every right to expect at least a goal a game.
He was clearly unhappy at the final whistle and said: “At this level, teams need to be consistent. Today, for 90 minutes Valencia was, Young was, Rojo was, Bailly was, Fellaini was, Carrick was. The other ones were not. The others were a flash of talent. A glimpse of action. Almost goals.
“When you score one against these teams we don’t win 1-0. We win 3-0 or 4-0. We miss chances.
“Always the same guys, always the same people. Always the same guys in
front of the train, pulling the train. We need to kill opponents. How many goals have Rashford, Lingard, Mkhitaryan (left) and Martial scored? How many have they scored?
“Zlatan and Mata are the ones with more goals. If they are not available the situation becomes more difficult.”
This took the Red Devils’ unbeaten run to 19, but it is looking increasingly likely that Mourinho (right) will have to win the Europa League for a passport into the Champions League.
As for Pulis, he left a happy man. He rubbed Arsene Wenger’s nose in it two weeks ago and yesterday was down to his organisational skills and the guts his XI showed.
Pulis said: “I thought we were resilient and well set-up. We played similarly to that against Arsenal. But we kept giving the ball away. In possession we must do better than that.”