Joyless Mourinho finds himself stuck in a rut at Old Trafford
JOSE MOURINHO was conspicuous by his absence when the Manchester United hierarchy gathered for a drinks reception at The Langham hotel in Marylebone on Saturday. The players had been given permission to make their own plans in London and Mourinho, too, had slipped away into the night. You couldn’t blame him for not wanting to socialise in the wake of a cup final loss against his old club. Mourinho is a serial winner and defeat has never sat comfortably with him. Truth is, however, there hasn’t been much to put anyone at United in a party mood for quite some time. Mourinho’s joyless demeanour since arriving two years ago has been mirrored by his players on the pitch. Here at Wembley, on an occasion made for a great FA Cup final, one game rather summed it all up. Yes, Chelsea played their part in preventing a spectacle by defending deep after taking the lead. Mourinho would have identified with that. But United lacked the guile to open them up. It was hard to watch for a club once synonymous with attacking football. Mourinho’s United are capable of taking off the handbrake, as they showed after a stupefying first half. But, on the whole, they are stuck in the lower gears. The days when they thrilled a generation with their football seem distant now after five years under David Moyes, Louis van Gaal and Mourinho. Not once since Sir Alex Ferguson retired have they scored five or more goals in a Premier League game. Manchester City have done it 17 times and Liverpool 12. Credit where it’s due. The number of points and goals have picked up again over the last two seasons under Mourinho. United are back among the Champions League elite and in contention for trophies. This was his third cup final in 15 months. And they have suffered by comparison to Pep Guardiola’s City, who would have given even Ferguson’s greatest teams a run for their money. But Van Gaal was sacked by Ed Woodward straight after lifting the FA Cup, more for the turgid nature of his football than a failure to qualify for the Champions League. Two
years on, and having spent £300million, are United that much better to watch now? Why do Paul Pogba and Alexis Sanchez look so average while Eden Hazard rises to the occasion for Chelsea? How have United become so reliant on Romelu Lukaku? Why have Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford apparently lost the trust of the manager and, as a result, their confidence? It was baffling to watch a team with so much attacking talent shift the ball sideways in Wembley’s wide open spaces without purpose or penetration. Simply throwing more money at the problem won’t necessarily help, considering the lack of impact made by many of United’s signings in recent years. Mourinho was always going to be an awkward fit for United, a club with such swashbuckling traditions. But, after making so much of the fact he picked up three trophies in his first season at Old Trafford, he must accept criticism for finishing his second one emptyhanded. Even more so when entertainment has been at a premium. ‘Finals are not for playing, they are for winning,’ Mourinho once said. He lost this one.