United’s struggle a drama, not crisis
> Mourinho is experienced enough to know that things can get a lot worse, but he is still confronted with the biggest challenge of his career
SIR ALEX FERGUSON has spent a considerable amount of time telling his successors not to panic. He was on a golf course on one of the occasions he and Louis van Gaal spoke – the thrust of the conversation being the Scot telling the Dutchman that these storms pass.
Jose Mourinho is more accustomed to the terrain and perhaps in less need of assurance, though this is new terrain here. Never has he had to prove that that the failure which preceded his arrival was only a blip.
Last week’s three defeats really do need to be kept in perspective, though. They tell us that it will take time to shape the Manchester United squad he has inherited into a unit capable of winning the Premier League again.
And, perverse though it is to draw any such conclusion barely a month into a new football season, perhaps they tell us that United will not win the title this season.
The problem with Mourinho’s arrival is the vast expectations which it has conjured up.
So desperately were van Gaal’s departure and Mourinho’s arrival both wished for by so many United supporters for that he had assumed the qualities of a miracle worker by the time the season began. He’s an elite football manager, which is not the same thing.
The first season of Mourinho’s second spell at Chelsea, in 2013/14 tells a story.
That Premier League campaign saw Manchester United out of the picture for the first time in years – seventh in the final reckoning, after David Moyes’ nine months from hell at the helm. And yet Mourinho’s side still only managed to finish third.
Had United competed, Mourinho could have faced an almighty fight to retain their Champions League status.
Mourinho’s inheritance was also certainly more secure that time than this. He assumed control of a Chelsea who had finished the previous season third, three points behind runners-up Manchester City.
This time, he has been confronted with his biggest Old Trafford challenge far earlier than he would have wanted.
The presence of Wayne Rooney in the dressing room and around the place means that any manager would want him to be a part of the picture on the field.
Yet accommodating him has meant the deployment of three players – Paul Pogba, Marouane Fellani and Rooney himself – out of position.
An answer to the problem of the midfield was the hauntedlooking individual staring out from the back of the United dugout on Sunday.
Michael Carrick might not be a three games a week player but if Pogba is to remain in front of defence, he would be the foil, providing the anchor while the Frenchman advances.
Ferguson always felt that Carrick was held back by what he called the “lack of bravado” which Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard possessed.
His slow starts to seasons always puzzled him and his coaching staff. But Carrick’s qualities are simple and fundamental – a positional sense and an ability to play a forward pass and break the opposition lines.
“There is a casualness about him that causes people to misunderstand his value and his constitution,” Ferguson once said.
The oversight should not obscure what Mourinho has brought – the palpable improvement of Luke Shaw and Antonio Valencia. Even Juan Mata, hardly an ally of the new manager, looks improved.
The central defence is a problem. Nowhere in the ranks of Chris Smalling, Daley Blind and Eric Bailly is there a commander.
That is the area where another signing appears most necessary. But no-one said that metamorphosis would be instant.
Ferguson has telephoned Mourinho once before telling him not to believe all that he sees published. It was when he said in the spring of 2013 that Chelsea would be “a threat” if the papers were right and the Portuguese was heading back to west London.
The comment saw its way into print as “Fergie says Jose is going to Chelsea.”
Ferguson said that Chelsea would challenge under their former manager; not immediately conquer. He, more than any, knows that success in management takes time. – The Independent