Pogba and Shaw struggle to lift Mourinho’s mood

Storm clouds remain heavy over Manchester United with even this opening Premier League victory against Leicester City failing to lift the dark mood of Jose Mourinho.

Goals from Paul Pogba and Luke Shaw – which felt strangely appropriate given the uncertainty over their futures under Mourinho – were not enough for the manager to move on from his burning sense that he has been badly let down this summer by the club’s hierarchy.

Post-match Mourinho was talking failed transfer targets and tricky pre-seasons – again – and he made a barbed comment about how managers nowadays should all be redefined as head coaches, such is the power they have had to cede to their clubs. A bit like the fable of the scorpion and the frog, he just cannot help himself.

Goodness knows what Mourinho’s reaction would have been had United lost to a reshaped Leicester, who preyed on that uncertainty and pushed and pushed before scoring in injury time through substitute Jamie Vardy. The final play of the match was a Leicester corner – with goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel in the home penalty area – and United watching anxiously as a header drifted wide.

The match itself was a microcosm of how Mourinho is perceived. It was either an encouraging win earned through managing the depleted resources available to him – for example using 22-year-old attacking midfielder Andreas Pereira in a deeper role – or another example that United are maddeningly constrained given the vast resources available to them. They won; but not convincingly.

They lack fluency, they lack that constant attacking flair, but they finished above them all bar bitter rivals Manchester City last season.

Mourinho praised both Shaw and Pogba but that comes with context. Shaw has been vilified in the past for his fitness, his attitude, even apparently his weight but the left-back struck late on and it proved so vital.

Mourinho may have allowed himself a wry smile as the goal followed a poor first touch but Shaw finished well enough given it was the first time the 23-year-old had found the net in 134 appearances – 67 each for Southampton and United.

It had seemed until then Pogba would be the story after he had scored the early penalty – awarded after just 77 seconds – that had nevertheless appeared set to settle this encounter. The Frenchman had been handed the captain’s armband and that felt symbolic and maybe it was an olive branch from Mourinho who later called him a “monster” with the impressive power of his performance after just a few days of training. But the midfielder’s celebrations at scoring then appeared muted and a million reasons will be read into that.

Maybe the World Cup winner was being cool but there is that huge backdrop of Barcelona’s interest, Mourinho’s unhappiness with Pogba last season and despite United’s insistence that he will not be sold a feeling that the manager may not entirely share that sentiment. And so it goes on.

Even the United coach turned up late. It made it to the stadium just an hour before kick-off – leading to jokes about how Mourinho failed to park the bus – which will not have helped his sense that things are just conspiring against him.

That should have been quickly dispelled by events on the pitch as referee Andre Marriner rightly awarded the penalty which came as Daniel Amartey inexplicably stuck out an arm to try and control the ball after Wes Morgan had blocked Sanchez’s shot. Amartey claimed it was his chest but, crazily, he had handled. Almost as bizarre was Pogba’s technique with a run-up that was more a slow tip-toe before side-footing high into a corner of the net above Schmeichel’s dive.

It was the third successive season that Leicester had conceded the first Premier League goal, but they began to dominate with debutant James Maddison, Demarai Gray and Ben Chilwell – three young English players in front of England manager Gareth Southgate – prominent.

Maddison would have scored but for the excellence of David De Gea who, one-handed, palmed away his fierce shot with Leicester also targeting United right-back Matteo Darmian, while Fred, on his debut, worked hard to plug the gaps and Eric Bailly did well in defence.

After the break United were much improved, although it was Leicester who went close, and were again denied by De Gea, after Gray met Vardy’s cross when the striker had caught out a dawdling Shaw. Thankfully that would not be Shaw’s only significant involvement.

Schmeichel brilliantly thwarted United substitute Romelu Lukaku, turning over his low shot with an outstretched leg, before Shaw took possession out on the left. His touch was heavy but he reacted quickly to collect it ahead of Ricardo Pereira and volleyed low back across goal to beat Schmeichel.

Just as it felt that would be it and that, despite Mourinho’s demands for a central defender – and with one of those targets, Harry Maguire, playing for Leicester – a clean sheet would be collected by United, Leicester hit back. Vardy’s presence confused De Gea and Bailly, who allowed a Ricardo Pereira cross to rebound back off the far post for the England striker to head home.

Would United throw it away? No, they held on – but Mourinho has not let go of that sense of grievance. Not yet, anyway.