Jose’s positive tension flops
> Three games into the new season and already, United are trapped in a vicious circle
SHOULD ED WOODWARD ever claim he was unaware of the risks inherent in hiring Jose Mourinho as the manager of Manchester United, let it be known that his equivalent across town once seemed to know them very well.
“Mourinho is a winner, but in order to win he generates a level of tension that becomes a problem,” said Ferran Soriano, now the chief executive officer of Manchester City but formerly of Barcelona, and on the board of directors when Mourinho was considered to replace Frank Rijkaard at the Nou Camp in 2008.
The tension is a problem that Mourinho chooses, Soriano added. “It’s positive tension, but (Barcelona) didn’t want it.”
“Positive tension” appears to be an oxymoronic phrase from Soriano, yet it neatly describes the atmosphere that Mourinho seeks to instill in his place of work and the conflicting demands that he places on his players.
Be defensively organised and solid, but be inventive and clinical enough in attack to win. Be willing to cede possession of the ball, but be sure not to cede control of the game. More than anything, be afraid that one below-par performance could be the end of you at this club. Be very afraid.
Whereas his peers might treat the fear of failure as an obstacle to success, it is the rock on which Mourinho’s church is built and when the walls begin to crumble, the cornerstone he invariably rests on.
It was no surprise, then, that for a meeting with Tottenham Hotspur which felt more momentous than any August league fixture should, Mourinho’s response to the dismal display at Brighton and Hove Albion was a punitive one.
Eric Bailly was mercilessly culled from the matchday squad for his errorstrewn performance. His partner in crime, Victor Lindelof, was dropped to the substitutes’ bench.
Most strikingly, the three players hauled off on the south coast – Anthony Martial, Juan Mata and Andreas Pereira – were nowhere to be found.
This selection was a statement – a timely reminder of Mourinho’s ruthless streak, for those included in the starting line-up as much as those omitted.
Nemanja Matic, one of six players to come into the United side, has been on the receiving end of such treatment in the past. In the midst of Mourinho’s downfall at Chelsea, Matic was brought on as a halftime substitute against Southampton then substituted off. It was a test.
Mourinho later admitted that it was only after a humiliated Matic responded resiliently in training over the days that followed that he knew the Serb was “one of my guys”.
Back in Medieval times, there was a term for this: “trial by ordeal”. It can work. It can galvanise players into performing above and beyond their usual level.
The “siege mentality”, a phrase now closely associated with Mourinho, has proved useful to him in the past. Yet it requires the players to have faith in their own respective abilities and, crucially, in those of the manager. Otherwise, they fear they will be the next in the stocks.
This was a United performance characterised by nervous energy. In the first half in the particular, Mourinho’s side desired to do right and attempted to play with purpose, but their efforts were constantly undermined by a fear that one mistake could cost them. In the end, several did.
Many of those trusted to start yesterday could now be axed for the trip to Burnley on Sunday, as the manager seeks to make another “statement”.
Mourinho may have to turn back to the Brighton exiles, newly bereft of confidence themselves.
Three games into the new season and already, United are trapped in a vicious circle. But then such are the risks that come with employing a manager whose approach is based, fundamentally, on fear.
In the long run, it is an approach that rarely pays off. “Positive tension” is an oxymoron, after all. – The Independent