Mourinho now must go back to drawing board

THREE STRAIGHT DEFEATS UNTHINKABLE FOR UNITED BOSS

IT only took 17 minutes. ‘Jose Mourinho! Jose Mourinho!’ roared a section of the Stretford End.

The fans liked what they saw from their team as they played with the intensity we have come to expect from United sides through the years, but which has been sorely lacking of late.

That extended period on the training ground at Carrington had paid off. The players were doing exactly what Mourinho had wanted. But they had not found that crucial opening goal going into the break against Spurs.

Again, Romelu Lukaku had a big chance to put his side ahead. Again he missed. At one point, after he wasted two further opportunities, Mourinho held up three fingers to his bench to signify three missed chances.

Those three fingers would come to represent something else in the press conference room as Mourinho, with eyes popping out of his head, reminded journalists he had won more Premier League titles than the league’s other 19 managers put together.

But Mourinho has to get his side back on track.

That is the challenge he now faces as those humiliating chants from opposition fans, ‘You’re not special anymore!’ and ‘You’re getting sacked in the morning!,’ rear their ugly heads again.

The worry is, while United might paper over the cracks with a first-half performance, they just do not look like a Mourinho team over 90 minutes – even when they are playing with a degree of confidence as they Romelu Lukaku missed a big chance to give United the lead against Spurs did against Spurs. When does a Mourinho team, with all those prematch dossiers and drills on the training field, concede such sloppy goals at the back?

Clearly, United’s defence is giving Mourinho serious headaches. In the last two games, he has used two different formations and started five different centre-backs – Eric Bailly, Victor Lindelof, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones and Ander Herrera.

While United’s back line held firm in the first half against Spurs – the odd hairy moment aside – it fell to pieces in the second. So where does he go from here?

Using three at the back and dropping Bailly, Juan Mata, Andreas Pereira and Anthony Martial from the match-day squad felt like a roll of the dice. And that is without even mentioning Hererra’s surprise inclusion at centre-back.

But now Mourinho has to go back to the drawing board with another extended period on the training field at Carrington ahead of the short trip to Burnley on Sunday.

To go into the international break off the back of three straight defeats would be unthinkable.