Manchester United now play the football of the weak

AFTER Manchester United’s sorry Champions League elimination to Sevilla, Jose Mourinho came out with the following: “I don’t want to make a drama of it,” the Portuguese said.

“That’s football, it is not the end of the world. I’ve sat in this chair twice before. With Porto – Manchester United out. With Real Madrid - Manchester United out. So this is nothing new for this football club.”

This was typical Mourinho, in so many ways. He is, of course, right. He did knock out United with Porto and Real, in what felt such a transparent attempt to remind everyone that, hang on, he is great. It’s just a pity the football doesn’t quite remind people in the same way any more. Such references instead remind people of what used to be; what has changed.

Mourinho’s approach seemed so painfully obvious. Having talked up the 0-0 away from home in the first leg, it was as if the United boss just wanted to grind the game down to nick a goal and go through.

That is the plan that has worked for him in the past, with financially less-resourced sides. Some in the game refer to it as “the football of the weak” because it ultimately comes down to trying to limit the superior abilities of the opposition; trying to strangle the game.

It should not be necessary at Manchester United, and especially against an inconsistent and poor Sevilla. It also isn’t that effective in the game any more, especially at such a level.

This cuts to the core of why Mourinho might have been the wrong choice for United; why they made such a conservative decision; why they are so far off the pace in the Premier League and that actually has nothing to do with Manchester City’s billions.

Ever since Pep Guardiola took over Barcelona and Spain simultaneously won Euro 2008, the game has changed. Their football changed things. It became more expansive. It became more technical, about maximising your own abilities.

This went right down to youth level. So many coaches you speak to talk about how the emphasis on defenders – to use perhaps the most pointedly relevant position – became about playing the ball rather than winning the ball. That has permeated the sport, but is also illustrated in the numbers. Ever since Guardiola’s appointment in 2008, the average goals-per-game in the Champions League knockout stages has shot up from around 2.5 to 2.9. That is a big jump. That is a big reason why Mourinho’s fundamental approach is outdated. It is analogue football in a digital world, and in a world where Guardiola’s sophistication is 4k. Sevilla’s Simon Kjaer was dispassionately dismissive of United’s approach after the game, pointing to how they knew United would create chances “by coincidence”. By coincidence, rather than creation, or co-ordination. Why did Mourinho feel the need to attack for around just six minutes of the 180? Why not just “play”? What should have been one of those classic European nights at Old Trafford instead became a humiliation.

It also goes even deeper than what works in the modern game. It’s about the game itself.

Even though United are ahead of Tottenham and Liverpool in the table, there just isn’t the same buzz about them, there isn’t the same excitement… there isn’t the same identity.

Mourinho has been at United for a year and a half now, and do we really know what his best team is? Do we really know what the approach is? When Liverpool and Spurs fans go to a game, there is a proper excitement about what might happen. There is a buzz.

Is there any of that with United? There is only an expectation that we’ll hear the same old grumbling, the same old complaints, the same old themes from the last 14 years. It’s all so tedious, like the football.

The Portuguese was right in that defeats can happen, anyone can go out. But this was not some play-the-numbers elimination by an unlucky bounce. It was a consequence of Mourinho’s timorous approach.

It used to be the approach that won things, as he so willingly pointed out with references to Porto and Real.

It was not the time for that, though. It is no longer Mourinho’s time. – The Independent