IS THAT ALL YOU’VE GOT, JOSE?
United fans mocked Liverpool for living on past glories, but now it’s how boss hits back at his critics
WHILE their rivals have recruited progressive, forward-thinking coaches, Manchester United find themselves lumbered with a manager living on past glories.
Jose Mourinho has been entrusted with the task of taking United forward, but his only defence after their abject 3-0 home defeat to Tottenham on Monday was to look backward.
Mourinho’s decision to hold up three fingers to indicate the number of Premier League titles he had won – more than the other 19 managers combined, he was determined to point out – was crass and ill thought out.
A few days earlier, at his terse and truculent pre-match press conference, which he began half-an-hour ahead of schedule in a bid to wrongfoot his inquisitors, Mourinho insisted he had never been “selfish” and had always been “a club man” throughout his nomadic managerial career.
For a man who announced himself as “The Special One” on his arrival in England in 2004, such a claim was laughable.
And, when the heat was on in the aftermath of United’s loss to Spurs, the mask slipped, his cool was lost and Mourinho reverted to type.
Slipping into selfpreservation mode, he embarked on his three-title spiel before flouncing out of the room, demanding more respect, his bottom lip jutting out like a sulking teenager grounded by his parents. It was an undignified response to legitimate probing following the heaviest home defeat of his illustrious career. It was also the biggest suffered by United since backto-back defeats at Old Trafford by Liverpool and Manchester City in 2014, which helped shove David Moyes (left) out of the door after just 10 months. Mourinho is not in Moyes territory yet, but failure to win at Burnley on Sunday will intensify the pressure and leave Ed Woodward and the United board wondering whether a change at the top will be necessary to save their season from implosion. United fans famously taunted Liverpool fans with a banner that proclaimed, while they were creating history
during their era of unprecedented success under Sir Alex Ferguson, their archrivals were living in the past.
Yet now it is United who stand accused of just that, with a manager whose only defence in the face of failure is to point to his past Premier League title wins as proof of his enduring prowess, when all the current evidence points to the opposite.
No one can dispute Mourinho’s past success, but by using it as tool with which to fight criticism, he serves only to portray himself as a coach whose best days are firmly behind him, one who has simply been unable or unwilling to adapt to the evolving nature of the modern game.
Mourinho spent United’s summer tour moaning at executive vice-chairman Woodward’s failure to deliver the summer transfer targets he had identified, with only three players – including a rookie full-back and third-choice goalkeeper – having been recruited in the window.
But, on Monday night, Mourinho was humiliated by a manager in Mauricio Pochettino, who was unable to sign anyone in the summer, yet who has managed to get the best out of his existing squad.
His Spurs side looked like genuine title contenders after flattering to deceive in recent years.
The same cannot be said of Mourinho, who has chosen to undermine so many of his players, his famed “tough-love” approach failing him thus far.
There is, of course, still time for the Reds’ boss to salvage United’s season after such a shambolic start.
But successive defeats to Brighton and Spurs means there is little margin for error, in terms of forcing their way back into contention for a title race that already looks a long shot.