‘MOURINHO HAS LOST THE DRESSING ROOM’
Carragher says United stars aren’t playing for the manager anymore
JOSE Mourinho has lost the Manchester United dressing room and facing the sack if he does not turn the situation on its head, according to Jamie Carragher.
The Portuguese has been at loggerheads with the club’s biggest player Paul Pogba since the summer and Carragher suggested the Frenchman is leading a growing faction of players who are unhappy with his management.
It has emerged that Mourinho criticised Antonio Valencia for not attending last week’s League Cup defeat by Derby County in his role as club captain before dropping him for the trip to West Ham.
Mourinho is understood to barely be on speaking terms with skipper Valencia having stripped Pogba of the vice-captaincy in his ongoing fallout with the Frenchman.
Alexis Sanchez was also axed for the damaging defeat at West Ham, a decision that left United’s highest earner furious and contemplating his future at Old Trafford just eight months after signing from Arsenal.
Mourinho had already upset Marcus Rashford after questioning his attitude in a team meeting last week, and it was notable that the England striker refused to celebrate after scoring for United in a 3-1 defeat.
Having left his last two positions at Real Madrid and Chelsea after falling out with senior players, Carragher sees a similar pattern emerging at Old Trafford and predicts his imminent demise unless there is immediate change.
Speaking on Sky Sports’s Monday Night Football, Carragher said: “I have no doubt from his comments in the press conference when he said “some players are trying and some are trying harder than others” that he’s lost the dressing room.
“That’s not rocket science and I don’t even think that’s a controversial thing to say.
“The problem with that is that it’s now the third time it’s happened. It started at Real Madrid with (Iker) Casillas and (Sergio) Ramos then it happened at Chelsea with (Eden) Hazard and all the players there and now there’s talk of a group led by Pogba. So there’s no doubt there’s massive problems there.”
While Mourinho boasts a winning record unrivalled by the vast majority of managers, his abrasive style means he has never lasted more than three seasons at a club.
That has lead to the coining of the term ‘third-season syndrome’.
Having supposedly lost the support of several senior players, such as Pogba, Sanchez and Anthony Martial, Mourinho is forcing the club to make a big decision: either sell the players or sack the manager. Carragher believes Old Trafford chief Ed Woodward will have little choice but to opt for the latter.
“Mourinho is not a builder of two or three teams,” Carragher continued. “Every club he’s at he builds one team and it’s very successful and then he moves on because his style of management is very confrontational. He’s had success but after three years everyone is burnt out; himself, the club, the players.
“If you’re the Manchester United owner or CEO, you’ve got to look at that and think: Pogba, Martial, Sanchez, Eric Bailly; are you going to get rid of all them and keep a manager who never normally lasts more than three years at a club or are you going to change the manager?
“I didn’t think he’d be manager next season, but it may be quicker than that. With two international breaks coming, I think he may have a huge problem if he doesn’t turn it around very quickly.”
Manchester United have suffered their worst start to a league campaign in 29 years this season. Their latest defeat, a 3-1 reverse to West Ham, left them with just ten points from seven games and a goal difference of minus two.
Facing the press ahead of late yesterday’s Champions League tie against Valencia, Mourinho faced questions over whether his players still care enough to back him following an abject display at West Ham.
He replied: “I think some care more than others.
“After 20 years of football, I am still the kid that I was 20 years ago and I am still naive, but I still don’t believe that a player is not honest.
“There were big players in the past and I ask these people with great reputations if at any time in their careers they went to a game not to give the maximum, not to help the club, not to make the fans happy and not to try his best.
“If somebody tells them “I was a football player and I didn’t give my best” then I change my opinion.
“Until somebody who was a big professional player says he was a dishonest player, I will always believe the players. They do it, they don’t do it that’s a different story, but I repeat I am naive or I still believe the player is an honest man.
“Sometimes what it looks is exactly the opposite. You can be laughing and be the saddest person in the world and you can have a sad face and inside you are very happy.”