Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Jose will get it in the neck, but he needs his big players to stand up and be counted
THE scuffed shot from Nemanja Matic might – via the fingertips of Alex McCarthy – have just been smuggling itself inside the post, but Paul Pogba made sure. He was offside.
He wagged his finger, like he does, but he was offside.
Late on, it would surely have stolen two extra points, but he was offside.
And that cameo just about summed up Pogba’s and Manchester United’s evening.
Jose Mourinho was tirelessly badgering the officials, but that this result was fair was unarguable. Mourinho will bear the brunt of criticism because that is his highly-paid job. But, for once, maybe it is the performances of the highly-paid performances that should be spotlighted.
They should be in the dock, as well as Mourinho.
Pogba’s performance was horribly inconsistent, the odd Hollywood pass, the odd twist and turn, caught in possession too often, too many wrong options taken.
Bought to take matches by the scruff the neck, he barely laid a glove on this contest.
He was far from alone. Plenty underperformed – and Mourinho knows that.
Considering he had them second [now third] in the Premier League and safely into the knockout stages of the Champions League, Mourinho has taken a kicking in recent weeks. He has a rhino-tough hide, but the dart from Jamie Carragher a few days ago must surely have pierced it.
If Pep Guardiola was coaching this United squad, he would make them champions.
That is cutting, verging on cruel.
Mourinho is a fiercely intelligent character, which makes his continual carping about off-field matters – such as spending power and fixture scheduling – all the more mystifying.
It is not that he does not make the odd, very valid point, it is just that the drip-drip effect of his complaints becomes tiresome.
It begins to look like a considered ploy to deflect from a mediocre spell on the pitch. What Mourinho needed was for his players, those Carragher reckons would be managed to greatness by Guardiola, to start shouting for him.
After three matches without one, he needed a win, but he also needed a performance. He got neither.
In the brief time he was on the field, one miss from Romelu Lukaku – whose injury is, hopefully, not as bad as first feared – encapsulated the issues Mourinho is having with his blue-chip players.
Their form and confidence has been ebbing away.
Southampton, with Sofiane Boufal outstanding, were the more footsure team for large chunks of this game, and the frustration that fostered in United ranks was clear.
That frustration showed its colours when Ashley Young sneakily elbowed Dusan Tadic in the stomach.
That frustration spilled down from the stands when they started calling for Anthony Martial with a full half-hour to go. The mock euphoria when No.22 was punched in by the fourth official might be the last ovation that Henrikh Mkhitaryan gets for some time.
And there lies a fundamental flaw in Mourinho’s bleating about transfer funds.
Mkhitaryan was an established star, an expensive purchase, when recruited.
He was a game-changer. Not any more. Has Mkhitaryan been improved by Mourinho? The answer is quite clearly no.
Is Marcus Rashford developing at the pace he should be under Mourinho? Probably not.
Extremely talented players appear to be stagnating.
Others appear not to be trusted. Luke Shaw will have his master’s voice ringing in the New Year after the bashing he got during the second half.
But the fault cannot lie solely with Mourinho.
This is no deep crisis – after all, United are only playing for slots two to four in the Premier League.
But too many big-name players are playing small-time football – and that can not be all down to Jose.