How to solve United’s crisis
It would not be a great signal of ambition if United sold their most talented and most marketable player.
They worked so hard and spent a then world-record fee to bring home their ‘prodigal son’ that there is no appetite to sell. The problem is that Pogba is understood to want to go, regardless of who is manager. He and his agent have their eyes on moving to one of Spain’s big two. It’s going to take a world-record £200million sum and it is highly unlikely to happen in January so a departure would have to wait until next summer at the earliest.
Therefore Pogba and Mourinho must put their differences to one side, strike up an uneasy truce and put the club first to help the team out of the mire. LACK OF GOALS One of the biggest on-pitch issues for Mourinho is to get his strikeforce firing on all cylinders. At the moment they all seem to be suffering from a crisis of confidence.
Romelu Lukaku missed vital chances against Brighton, Tottenham and Derby that, had they gone in, might have changed the course of those games. The Belgian has now gone five matches without scoring and his touch was poor against Valencia in the Champions League stalement on Tuesday.
As for Alexis Sanchez, the harder he tries, the worse it seems to get. The Chilean is neither scoring nor making assists he has not scored since the FA Cup semi-final win over Tottenham in April. And the cheers that greeted his substitution against Valencia will not have helped his confidence.
Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial have only contributed one goal apiece this season, although they have had limited game-time. Rashford, however, followed up his strike at West Ham by looking United’s most dangerous striker on Tuesday and now must be given a run in the team to build his confidence and rhythm. SHAKY DEFENCE Mourinho said pre-season that United faced “a difficult season” if they did not buy a new defender but he could not have anticipated quite how badly his team would start.
They kept only their third clean sheet in 10 games this season against Valencia but still endured plenty of anxious moments. They simply look like conceding in every game.
Mourinho has not helped by undermining the confidence of the defenders he has. He said he feared for United’s hopes when Eric Bailly and Phil Jones stepped up in the Carabao Cup shootout defeat by Derby. And after the Valencia game, he said he did not have defenders with the technical ability to build moves from the back. While that may be true, it is not great man-management to voice those negative opinions in public.
The positives are that Luke Shaw and new boy Diogo Dalot have given United much-needed fresh legs in the full-back positions. LACK OF LEADERS United not only need players to ‘lead’ in the dressing room but, more importantly, to lead by example on the pitch. Oh, for a Roy Keane to kick a few backsides.
At the moment too many players seem more concerned about their own game to take their team-mates by the scruff of the neck.