We need heart – maybe I should select myself!
Palace do a job on Jose’s United flops
HEART. Desire. Maturity. Character. Personality. Jose Mourinho has put together a rather damning checklist of qualities missing in some of his Manchester United players these past few days.
It’s by no means the first time Mourinho has chosen to publicly criticise his squad as he tries to get more out of them in what is developing into a turgid season at Old Trafford, and it’s unlikely to be the last.
As the boos rang out around the stadium after another dispiriting performance and result, you had to wonder if they are still listening to him.
There comes a point where words cease to have the desired effect, and the United players are said to have grown weary of Mourinho’s verbal grenades. Some of them are understood to be angry at his latest remarks but most were described as apathetic last night.
Having listed the deficiencies in his younger players — principally Luke Shaw, Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard — in an interview that came to light before this stalemate with Crystal Palace, afterwards the United manager criticised the whole team for lacking heart.
‘I cannot change players’ natures dramatically,’ he said. ‘The solution is that probably I have to make certain choices based on heart and then probably I will play myself.’
Echoing comments he made before another goalless draw against Valencia last month that some of his players care more than others, Mourinho predicted that not all of them would have let this latest setback ruin their Saturday night. ‘There are people who will have a bad dinner and there are people that will enjoy a nice dinner and there will even be people that will party,’ he said.
Privately, Mourinho has believed for some time that he lacks the strong characters in his United squad that he used to have at Chelsea, Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Porto. He is a coach who wants leaders and warriors, men who will respond to criticism by going out of their way to prove him wrong. When he spoke in his TV interview with Univision about the modern-day footballer being protected by an entourage that gives them ‘too much care, too many excuses’, Mourinho hinted at his frustration with changing times.
Increasingly he seems like a coach out of step with his players and that is being reflected in performances such as this. The result made a mockery of Mourinho’s aim of being in the top four by new year as Palace deservedly picked up their first point at Old Trafford since December 1989.
Once again, Mourinho was let down by stars such as Paul Pogba, Romelu Lukaku and second-half substitute Alexis Sanchez. The rest weren’t much better, with a few exceptions. Victor Lindelof at least showed some heart by playing on with a groin problem that seems likely to rule him out of the Champions League group game at home to Young Boys tomorrow and Palace boss Roy Hodgson put that forward as proof of United’s commitment.
‘Not only are there good players here who can cause so many problems for opponents, you’ve even got that level of spirit and determination and guts when it comes down to it,’ he said.
However, that seemed overly generous and flew in the face of Mourinho’s more accurate assessment of his own team.
Hodgson also claimed there is still a ‘fear factor’ about coming to Old Trafford but the truth is Palace had 13 attempts on goal — one more than United and the most in any of their away games this season.
Like so many other clubs these days, they came here showing very little fear and contained Mourinho’s side while creating arguably the better chances on the break.
Remarkably, this was United’s first clean sheet at home in the Premier League this season.
It was an encouraging way for Palace to end a difficult sequence of games and they now have a run of four fixtures against Burnley, Brighton, West Ham and Leicester in which to try to climb the table.
‘We need points and we need results,’ said Hodgson. ‘ If the players think it’s going to be easier in some way, they are making a huge mistake and they will be told that. I believe they will accept those words and act on them.’
If only Mourinho could be so sure that his players are listening.