UNITED SPECIAL Woodward is Mourinho’s backing for defenders after defeat not the only one to blame
JOSE Mourinho refused to dwell on United’s transfer window failings after Eric Bailly and Victor Lindelof’s shambolic performances in the defeat at Brighton.
Bailly and Lindelof were culpable for all three Brighton goals in a 3-2 reverse which flattered a United side that managed two attempts on target in the second half at the Amex Stadium.
Mourinho coveted a central defensive signing in the summer amid interest in Tottenham’s Toby Alderweireld and Leicester centre-half Harry Maguire, however a move never materialised and United’s only defensive recruit was 19-year-old Diogo Dalot. The Portuguese is out until next month with a meniscus injury.
“Speak about the market? I’m not going to do that,” Mourinho replied in response to a question about his centre-backs’ displays.
“The confidence of the players, I think you are right, is not just players, every person that in every job makes a mistake is not happy. Selfesteem goes down a little bit more, confidence levels, that’s human nature.
“So if you ask me if my players are in this moment happy I don’t think they are.” When pressed on the individual errors, Mourinho refused to become more candid.
“I don’t answer to your question,” he added. “In a very honest and pragmatic way like I normally am, I cannot answer to your question. I can say keep working and keep trying to improve, is the only thing that I can do, I can’t do anything else.” PERHAPS Paul Pogba felt impelled to front up to the cameras having refused to do so at full-time; the United captain was the first redshirted player to step off the pitch, followed by Fred.
Footballers are not obliged to applaud visiting supporters but United’s outsang Brighton in defeat and had made a 500-mile round trip on a Sunday where the trains were as unreliable as the United defenders. Some left Old Trafford at 7.45am and returned 20 minutes short of midnight. Then to get home.
Ashley Young, Romelu Lukaku and David de Gea offered applause from a distance while Jesse Lingard, Marcus Rashford and Luke Shaw got within touching distance; Lingard and Rashford gifted their shirts to some supporters. Cynicism aside, it was a gesture the travelling followers appreciated and nothing quite irks them more than players turning their back at full-time. Pogba, messianic as he breached The Etihad stewards in April, still has much to learn with that armband strapped to his bicep.
United have bigger problems than a possible disconnect between players and fans and the threat of a 10-year championship drought is tangible.
This is not a knee-jerk reaction to a defeat to a recently promoted team; Brighton had been coming since Jose Mourinho uttered the words ‘our pre-season is very bad’ in the UCLA’s JD Morgan Center on July 18. He knew the season would be ‘very difficult’ unless he reinforced the squad and Brighton was, performance-wise, his Olympiakos. Or Midtjylland.
The difference is Mourinho’s position should not be in jeopardy. He was an essential appointment, the board refused to back him in the transfer market, United have not sufficiently strengthened and there is no obvious panacea. Pep Guardiola would not win the Premier League with this squad. Mauricio Pochettino has won as much as David Moyes. Zinedine Zidane reaps what others sow.
At 0-0 on Sunday, the United supporters loudly and incessantly chanted Mourinho’s name. He raised his hand four times before he applauded their backing, having offered them a wave against Leicester nine days earlier. The buck does stop with the manager, though, and there were flashes at the Amex Stadium which were beyond Ed Woodward’s control. As a colleague opined, Manchester United are one of those teams you watch and wonder what on earth they do in training. The defence is disjointed, the midfield unbalanced, the forwards rigid and the corner strategy seems to have been devised by Bebe. It was as though a force field existed in front of Brighton’s goal and United managed three attempts on target. Romelu Lukaku was up front and Marouane Fellaini introduced on the hour yet the only specialist winger to provide service was the right-back Ashley Young, whose most memorable contribution was a swinger which endangered Brighton supporters. Mourinho, of course, coveted the natural right winger Willian and it is grossly negligible of United to have not bought a right flanker since Wilfried Zaha in January 2013.