MARTIAL SHOWS JOSE WHY HE DESERVES A DECENT RUN
But the United boss has more pressing concerns
AN APPEAL for calm? Jose Mourinho is a very optimistic soul if he thinks tranquillity can reign at Manchester United this season.
His finger-to-the-lips gesture, made directly down the lens of the nearest camera on the final whistle, was Mourinho’s way of reminding those inside and outside the club that there is a distance to go, that one draw or one defeat in October does not spell ruination.
‘Enjoy the football,’ he said. ‘Don’t speak all the time so much, anticipating scenarios, trying to put pressure on people.’
Good luck with that, however, in this of all seasons. Good luck when the early bolters are Manchester City, as guided by Pep Guardiola. City are amplifying everything, every slip, the smallest mis-step, each tiny failing.
Do you think United’s dour draw at Liverpool would have attracted such negativity were it not for the vibrancy of Manchester City’s football? Do you think the defeat at Huddersfield would have been viewed as a catastrophe had City not embarked on a relentless winning run since August 21? Will it stop after this?
How can it when Manchester United’s next league fixture is a visit to Chelsea, the champions, where City won so impressively in September. If they achieve what would once have been a creditable draw, it will now be viewed as two points dropped on the league leaders. Conversationalists are not putting pressure on Mourinho and United. City are. And while this blue streak continues, that grip will not relent.
Against Tottenham, United handled it admirably. Ordinary for much of the first half — they started brightly but faded — United improved in the second and had shaded the game by the end.
Romelu Lukaku hit a post with a header two minutes before he sent Anthony Martial through, and the substitute defeated Hugo Lloris in Tottenham’s goal.
IT WAS vindication for Mourinho too, after sections of the crowd derided his decision to introduce Martial for Marcus Rashford, at that stage United’s most eye-catching forward. He wasn’t sure if they were booing Martial’s introduction, Rashford’s contribution or the fact Lukaku was still on the field, but he didn’t take kindly to any of it.
‘I would like the supporters to explain why they don’t support Lukaku so much, because he gives everything,’ he said. ‘I think it is not fair when scoring the goal or not scoring the goal makes the whole difference.
‘I really don’t understand some reactions. Are they Red Devils? Sometimes I don’t know because the strikers work amazingly well. We had two playing against three top central defenders, the best we have in Europe, and they had to do the defensive job. The strikers gave us solutions to get out of the pressure, to win first balls, to win second balls, their work was amazing.
‘But they pay the ticket so they can do what they want. They can boo a player that doesn’t deserve to be booed; they can boo a player who is working like an animal.’
He pronounced ‘animal’ with an initial ‘h’, the way Alf Ramsey once did when describing the play of Argentina, and there is much of Ramsey in the way Mourinho sees football. The end justifying the means as it did on Saturday when Tottenham saw more of the ball and, in spells, looked as if they might inflict a guard-changing win, even without Harry Kane.
Just three minutes before United took the lead Tottenham could have scored through Dele Alli, but this was not to be the milestone result against a title contender that Mauricio Pochettino had hoped for. The bottom line this morning is that Tottenham are a single point ahead of Arsenal, a team perceived by their neighbours to be in crisis.
This was the week Tottenham could prove they were not, as Guardiola had it, the Harry Kane team. Yet with Kane absent, they have recorded back-to-back defeats for the first time since February.
This was far from a poor performance but the outcome was unhelpful for a team looking to expand their repertoire. Looking at the squads of the Manchester clubs, Tottenham may struggle to keep pace unless Kane can stay fit. They do not have the depth of their rivals in the forward line. Mourinho could replace Lukaku with Rashford or Rashford with Martial. Guardiola chooses between Sergio Aguero, Leroy Sane and Gabriel Jesus. Kane’s direct replacement is Fer-nando Llorente, a player Pochettino chose not to start at Old Trafford, preferring to push forward Son Heung-min.
‘It’s a little unfair to talk about depth in our squad because if Alli had scored then we would be speaking in a different way,’ Pochettino insisted. Yet if Alli had scored would that have brought Llorente closer to Kane in popular imaginations? No. It would have meant Tottenham had found a way to win without Kane, not that they had found an alternate nine of similar quality.
There is a gulf between Kane and his deputy that does not exist for Mourinho and Guardiola and is the reason the striker is being nursed through his hamstring injury.
To push him, and risk a more serious strain, could be fatal to Tottenham’s ambitions. This is one scenario Pochettino must anticipate, as dark as the prospect might be.
I would like the supporters to explain why they don’t support Lukaku so much, because he gives everything — JOSE MOURINHO
IT WAS not long into an explanation of Leroy Sane’s value to Manchester City’s attack that Pep Guardiola checked himself and delivered the kind of message that underpins all his work.
A sixth goal in seven league games provided the platform for City’s eighth successive win in the Premier League but, even when administering praise, Guardiola also makes a point.
‘He is a guy with a special talent,’ said City’s manager. ‘He can run in behind so the opponent on that side knows he’s a guy who can attack the byline.
‘He scored a fantastic goal, but I’ve always said to him — and to Raheem (Sterling), another goal, seven games, seven goals — they still have a big gap to improve.
‘I like to tell them to be calm. Scoring goals is so important, playing well is so important, but they can do better. I don’t have any doubts about that, they are still young.’
How? ‘In the simple things,’ replied Guardiola without missing a beat. ‘When he has the ball, don’t lose the ball. I don’t ask him to dribble, I don’t ask him to make good passes, or to do good shots. It is the simple things.’
Sterling, a second-half substitute, scored what turned out to be the winner to continue his productive season so warranted Guardiola’s attention but Sane was the player who most affected the game at the Hawthorns.
Not only was his early goal an example of sharp thinking and precise technique but he stretched West Bromwich Albion’s backline right into the closing stages with purposeful running. After Fernandinho’s strike he also had a role in Sterling’s goal, exchanging quick passes with Kevin De Bruyne to tease apart a well-drilled defence that was then breached by Kyle Walker’s cross.
It was another performance to enhance Sane’s growing influence in a team bursting with attacking flair, and he is still only 21 years old.
That he has fought his way here having been out of Guardiola’s plans at the start of the season after a poor pre-season speaks of his mental strength, too. He started one of the first five games but has missed six minutes of the last five games to become City’s most played forward in that period, ahead of De Bruyne and David Silva. In the last seven, he has scored six and assisted four.
If those are impressive individual statistics, it is the same for the team. City have now set the best 10-game start to a Premier League season, improving their record from 2011-12.
De Bruyne is not convinced by claims the side might replicate Arsenal’s Invincibles.
‘To go unbeaten? Well, it’s very hard. I don’t think it will be possible,’ the Belgian said. ‘The level of competition is so high, in every team. It’s not like 10 or 15 years ago where you have a couple of teams that won’t win against the top teams. Now, every game is hard and you need to be mentally there.
‘And with the Champions League and all the cups, there will be a game where maybe we are a bit less and maybe lose.
‘Hopefully, we can have two good games this week and go into the international break unbeaten and it will mean we put a lot of pressure on the rest.’
For West Brom, Jay Rodriguez’s goal and Matt Phillips’s late strike made the scoreline kinder than it might have been. Tony Pulis’s side have not won since week two to slide towards the relegation zone, but Kieran Gibbs believes the tide will turn.
‘We need to close games, like Watford and Leicester, when you go in front it’s important to remain focused for 90 minutes,’ he said. ‘I don’t think the results reflect the performances in some games but in others we haven’t been good enough individually.
‘The effort is there. Everyone is relaxed and enjoying training and giving 100 per cent in the games.’