Mourinho’s case for the defence is starting to jar
Goals are drying up and, despite lavish spending, team still need overhaul at back and in midfield
The way that Jose Mourinho chose to answer a question right at the end of his press conference following Manchester United’s goalless draw in Seville was revealing. The United manager was asked whether Alexis Sanchez was a player who needed tactical instruction or preferred an off-the-cuff approach.
His reply was lengthy and slightly confusing. He talked about whether his inquisitors were playing “a new sport” and said he would ask David Beckham, Roy Keane and Paul Scholes whether they tracked back during their playing days.
“Now it looks like all the good players they have to play free,” he said. “But I think that is such a stupid thing to say. When the team has the ball, you attack. When the team doesn’t have the ball, you defend. It’s as simple as that. Everybody has tactical discipline.”
Mourinho is right, of course, as a general point. But it jarred for him to be lecturing on the importance of defensive discipline and tactics after he had started a Champions League last-16 fixture with a defensively-minded midfield three of Nemanja Matic, Scott Mctominay and Ander Herrera. His side had just one shot on target, and that was a speculative one.
It was also odd to invoke Beckham, Scholes and Keane because Mourinho’s United side are a far cry from Sir Alex Ferguson’s teams. Under the Scot there was tactical discipline, a desire to run back and defend but they were a team whose first and last intention was to attack, or at least try to attack. It did not always work. But it felt like a different approach.
Mourinho will argue that a goalless draw away to Sevilla, who put three goals past Liverpool at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium in their Champions League group game last autumn, is creditable enough. However, it was not a result earned with the level of control Mourinho later claimed
United were indebted to their goalkeeper David De Gea for one world-class save and a handful of others while ceding 25 attempts on goal to Sevilla – fifth in La Liga and no great shakes – spoke of a team who were, frankly, fortunate not to concede at least once.
They go into the second leg as favourites with Mourinho demanding a “great European night” at Old Trafford, which to him means the home fans making noise and getting behind their team. But will he allow his team to play the kind of football that a home crowd can get behind in the way the Sevilla supporters raucously hailed their players?
United have scored 51 goals in the Premier League this season, a respectable total, but those goals have started to dry up. In their past five games they have failed to score on three occasions. Since beating Arsenal on Dec 2 they have scored more than two goals in a match just twice – a 3-0 win over Stoke and a 4-0 FA Cup win over Yeovil Town, of League Two.
Mourinho also scoffed at “statistic shots”, dismissing Sevilla’s attempts on goal as unthreatening, but the statistics around his United
His side had just one shot on target against Sevilla, and that was a speculative one
team are pretty damning. The metrics are down for Mourinho, compared to Ferguson, on every attacking measure: goals, shots, touches in the opposition box, away goals against the ‘Big Six’. And that is not just when compared to the Ferguson team of Beckham, Scholes and Keane, but in his later years when United were apparently in decline.
Mourinho compares more favourably to David Moyes and Louis van Gaal and will argue that he is turning around the stultifying football of those years. But he has a long way to go. Beyond that there are the aesthetics. United are a team who are neither easy to watch nor to detect what they are trying to do. Put Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool or Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham Hotspur in another shirt and they are easily identifiable.
United look more confused. They also look like a team who still need a major overhaul in defence – Mourinho clearly does not trust his central defenders, hence the conservative approach – and in midfield. The manager also does not appear able to find the right combinations for his attack.
A forward roster that includes Sanchez, Romelu Lukaku, Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford and Juan Mata has to do better. Martial and Rashford came on against Sevilla with Mourinho obviously hoping their pace would help win the game but by then the pattern was set and the home side remained dominant. The signing of Sanchez has changed United even more into a team who attack directly rather than building the play, and he has not improved them. Lukaku can be isolated, as proven by the fact he touches the ball just 34 times per game on average, far less than United’s other principal goalscorers over the past decade.
The issues around Paul Pogba, left on the bench twice, substituted twice, losing his place to young Mctominay, only highlight the disconnect at United.
Pogba is not playing well and that is his responsibility, but it is also the responsibility of the manager who sanctioned a spend of £8 9 million, but who is attempting – it seems – to distance himself from that cost.
Next up for United are Chelsea at home on Sunday – if they fail to win that game the sense of frustration will grow. They are then away to Crystal Palace and at home to Liverpool before facing Sevilla again. It feels like something has to change.