Is fuming Jose set to axe ‘childish’ stars?
The criticism Jose Mourinho levelled at his Manchester United players was worrying enough in isolation. But in a wider context his condemnation of their ‘childish’ approach in the 2-2 draw at Leicester should ring even louder alarm bells.
Coincidentally, it was at the King Power Stadium under dark skies that Mourinho turned his fury on his Chelsea players in December 2015. he accused them of ‘betrayal’ for a failure to carry out instructions after a 2-1 loss. he was sacked three days later.
This juncture at United is nowhere near as critical, but two years on there was similar venom in the Portuguese’s words and a willingness to place blame on his team. Mourinho is not prepared to play the role of dug- out babysitter amid, in his view, ‘ immaturity’ on the pitch.
Given Mourinho’s position is much stronger than it was at Chelsea, that stance spells trouble for a number of United players who it seems have tried the 54-year-old’s patience too many times. The transfer window opens next week and Mourinho will have money to spend on finding replacements.
Beginning with Burnley today, bridging the record 13- point Christmas gap to Manchester City appears impossible but Mourinho sounded in the mood to make changes for next season already.
Anthony Martial, Jesse Lingard, and Marcus Rashford all spurned glorious chances to extend a 2-1 lead at Leicester and then as the minutes ticked down, United’s defence failed to react to the groin injury sustained by Chris Smalling, meaning the immobile defender was up against harry Maguire when the Leicester player steered in a dramatic late equaliser.
‘half an hour after the second goal is a game to finish four-, five-, six-one,’ said Mourinho. ‘Then in the last minute we had players without the capacity to analyse the game, to see that Smalling was in trouble. A very immature team.
‘ Some players have childish decisions and time helps them to have maturity and to decide better. But some other players stay with childish decisions until the end of their career.’
Rather than putting those offending players on the naughty step to elicit a reaction, Mourinho’s assessment came across as a genuine threat to get rid for good.
Gary Neville admonished Smalling for a failure to flag up his injury sooner or with greater clarity and he also suggested that when Phil Jones tried to reorganise by bringing Victor Lindelof to a central position and Ander herrera to right back, the Spaniard refused, signalling for henrikh Mkhitaryan to drop back instead. ‘You cannot believe the lack of coordination and leadership shown at the end of that game,’ said Neville.
Ashley Young, who had received Mourinho’s touchline instructions, allowed Maguire to run behind him apparently in the belief Smalling would pick up.
But Mourinho’s deep irritation was also the result of offensive naivety. Lingard was lackadaisical in hitting the post with an open goal, Martial unfocused when ballooning over with only Kasper Schmeichel to beat, and Rashford hesitant when one on one.
As well as the clear-cut chances, there were countless wasted opportunities to counter effectively as 10-man Leicester pushed for a goal to add to Jamie Vardy’s opener.
The draw meant United are six points better off at this stage of the season compared to last, but with City’s mountainous lead and a result that felt like defeat, Mourinho was in no mood to entertain the Christmas spirit.
‘You know I’m not thinking of that,’ he said. ‘I’m looking at this match and the only thing I can say is that it was an easy match to win. even at half-time with the score 1-1, I told the players more than one time, “The match is very easy to win”. And we didn’t.’