Jose’s job is to beat City, not entertain the world
THIs time, it is different. If Jose Mourinho chooses to park a bus against Manchester City on sunday, even at old Trafford, then good luck to him. let no one argue the onus is on Manchester united to entertain the watching world.
If he wants to take City on in an open, cavalier, technical game he will in all likelihood lose. He has to be smarter than that. He is smarter than that.
Mourinho was chippy for several weeks after the goalless draw with liverpool on october 14, because Manchester united’s negative approach to the game was criticised. It cost his team significant early season momentum, not least when they lost at Huddersfield the next weekend.
Yet the disappointment was felt because they were better than that. They were better than liverpool and have continued to prove it since. six points separate them in the table; united have conceded 10 fewer goals and scored two more, too. It was a mistake to consider them equals. City are unlikely to do it when they visit anfield on January 14.
Yet while it may pain united supporters to admit this, City cannot simply be taken on in a free-flowing game. Not when standing on the brink of history. Not when now capable of delivering Pep Guardiola’s artistic vision. The hard-fought win over west Ham on sunday was their 13th straight in the league, one more and they will beat the Premier league record for consecutive victories in a season. united are good, but they are not in a position to repel that form on instinct.
Fortunately, one imagines Mourinho knows this. Beating City will require strategy — and Mourinho never lets ego or his personal reputation get in the way of a damn good plan. Faced with ajax in the Europa league final last season, he did not indulge the idea that a club with the history of united should match them pass for precious pass. He looked at his defence, recognised its limitations and went long, denying ajax the ball.
at the end, he was as happy with his victory as if he had played ajax off the park — which, in a way, he had. He held a celebratory finger aloft. Number one, he indicated to anyone watching. Number one.
That is his greatness. He may sulk and moan and act hurt, but deep down he doesn’t really care what you think. If he wants to go to anfield next season and bore the pants off everybody again, he will. If he thinks a point at liverpool is a good result, he’ll take it, every year.
He changed strategy midseason to win his third title at Chelsea, became cagey where his team had previously been expansive. His tactics to eliminate Barcelona in the Champions league semi-final with Inter Milan in 2010 varied wildly tie to tie. It is a myth that Mourinho is negative or one-dimensional. He is not afraid to play — as his freescoring title with Real Madrid proved — but he is not afraid to stop playing, either.
David Moyes, the west Ham manager, put 10 men behind the ball and hit City solely on the counter-attack on sunday and it nearly worked. united have considerably better players than west Ham. and if Mourinho thinks that is the way to go, he will be equally pragmatic without remorse. Not because he’s arrogant, but because he isn’t. an arrogant man would be too proud to consider City as superiors in the most aesthetically pleasing elements of the game.
Mourinho doesn’t care. He
knows his team have other strengths. Less attractive to the eye, perhaps, but potentially highly effective. And he’ll play to them, even if the purists sigh.
But don’t knock it. English football, particularly the Premier League this seson, needs Mourinho. It needs a manager who will spend the week coaching City’s downfall, no matter how dark the stratagem.
LIvERPOOL were open at City and went down by five; Chelsea couldn’t live with them, even at Stamford Bridge; the best team won the day they beat Arsenal, no matter Arsene Wenger’s complaints. The last hope of derailing Guardiola’s procession is that Mourinho might have City’s measure at Old Trafford.
It will be devilishly difficult without Paul Pogba, of course, whose influence on United is ever more obvious. Yet City have kept one clean sheet in the league since beating Burnley 3-0 on October 21. And if West Brom, Arsenal, Huddersfield, Southampton and West Ham can score against them, Mourinho will certainly feel his team have chances; and once ahead, a better hope of holding on to win, too.
His biggest problem is that a draw is no good. Merely preventing City’s eight-point lead from extending to double figures is not enough for United. They have to make inroads into that margin, strike a blow against City’s feeling of invincibility, the belief that Guardiola is forging a blue take on Ferguson’s United, creating a team who play the best football and always win, however late.
Mourinho has to cause doubt, insecurity, uncertainty, plant a tiny seed of fear. For those who like their political machinations red in tooth and claw, he has to inform City that winter is coming. You know nothing, Pep Guardiola.
What he cannot do is entertain the Einsteins, or those who would mark football like figure skating. United are better than Liverpool and should have set out that day to prove it. They are not better than City, but this does not mean they cannot win.
And Mourinho knows that. In fact, he’ll have been thinking of little else all season.