Mourinho’s the master
AN AFTERNOON that had begun with Jose Mourinho apparently waving the white flag over his team’s league campaign ended with one of the games of the season and a new lease of life breathed into the title race.
How else to interpret the Manchester United manager’s selection of players other than as a tacit admission that Thursday’s Europa League second-leg tie with Anderlecht was of more importance than this Premier League game and, therefore, required the resting of tired veteran Zlatan Ibrahimovic?
Of course, what that analysis failed to take into account was a tactical masterstroke by Mourinho.
Having injected much-needed pace into his forward line by choosing Jesse Lingard to partner Marcus Rashford, Mourinho also mirrored Chelsea’s three-man back line, allowing the speedy Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young to take up advanced positions and add even more energy to his team’s attacking play.
That also served to bolster the midfield and allowed Mourinho to unleash his tactical piece de resistance, with Ander Herrera performing a manmarking job on Eden Hazard that was so complete the Chelsea playmaker must have expected his opponent would sit next to him in the visitors’ dressing room at half-time.
The fact that Herrera scored the decisive second goal early in the second half underlined that this was, even more than the EFL Cup final victory over Southampton in February, Mourinho’s finest hour as United manager to date.
Apart from the sheer football acumen he brought to bear, his recent handling of his young forwards also proved significant.
The manager has taken the unusual step of calling out Rashford, Lingard and Anthony Martial by name, pointing out their dreadful ratio of chances to goals and Frenchman Martial, in poor form again in the trip to Anderlecht on Thursday, did not even merit a place on the bench yesterday.
If Mourinho’s desired effect was to provide the remaining two young local forwards with the proverbial kick up the rear, then his man-management has been magnificent based on their displays against a Chelsea defence that has been virtually impregnable for large parts of this season.
Nor should the United manager’s own considerable ego be underestimated. After losing his first two meetings with his former employers this season, this was simply not a game Mourinho was prepared to lose and it brought the very best out of him.
The Premier League – and the title race – is a better place this morning for that.