Mourinho’s on the edge right now and it won’t take much to tip him over
JOSE MOURINHO’S first season at Manchester United is teetering on the edge at the moment. It is like that scene at the end of the Italian Job, when the bus had careered off the road and is balanced on the cliff. You do not know if it is going to fall down into the abyss, or get dragged to safety.
Win t he Europa League a nd Mourinho will have two trophies and Champions League qualification in his first season. Who wouldn’t have been satisfied with that at the start of this campaign? Even if the Europa League and the League Cup are hardly the trophies Manchester United expect to target.
If he can achieve that — and it is still if — then Mourinho can argue he has laid the foundation for something much more akin to a Manchester United season next term. It puts him in prime position to go and sign the player she needs to. Antoine Griezmann will be top of his list, but you get the impression they will spend big in a range of positions.
Then again, imagine finishing sixth — a place behind what Louis van Gaal managed last season. And losing what looks like a straightforward Europa League. Then it will be very hard to dress up a League Cup win as a successful season.
And that puts Mourinho under pressure to deliver next season. And it puts him under even more pressure to bring in those summer signings to a club with, yet again, no Champions League football.
Mourinho is right that his strikers have let him down. The finishing has not been good enough. That much is evident in the 14 draws they have had — nine of those at Old Trafford. They have been what I used to call winning draws; games which really ought to have been converted into three points. Even five of those turned into victories would be an extra 10 points.
And that has put them in thiss precarious position. It would have e been hard to imagine a United side of the past going into a clash with Chelsea at Old Trafford at this stage of the season with one eye on a Europa League game on Thursday. But Mourinho will be shrewd enough to make Europe his priority.
What Mourinho does so well is put down trophy-winning foundations. At every club he has been at since Porto he has won a trophy in his first season, with the exception of Chelsea in 2013-14. Winning trophies, even minor ones, bonds and consolidates a team and provides a springboard for the future. Mourinho uses that. You can imagine him telling the United players, should they win the Europa League, ‘Enjoy this. But next season make sure we’re competing to win the Champions League’.
These are stepping stones on the way to somewhere bigger. United are a difficult team to read at the moment. They do not really get you off your chair but at times they do get you to the edge of your seat. But if the trajectory continues as expected, Mourinho can justifiably say that they are climbing to a better future. Antonio Conte does what Mourinho used to do so well. There is no team in the Premier League better balanced than Chelsea.
There was a moment in the game against Manchester City recently, just before half-time, where they looked to be on the back foot and seemed as though they were really struggling.
City were flying forward, with loads of space for David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne. I was watching it thinking, ‘this is going to be hard for Chelsea’.
Conte took a look at that, takes off Kurt Zouma for Nemanja Matic, puts Cesar Azpilicueta back in defence and releases Cesc Fabregas forward.
The wing-backs pulled back a bit and stopped flying up the pitch to tuck into deeper positions. It was a very shrewd move to get through the game, shore it up and ultimately seal a victory that could prove decisive in the title race. I do not think Pep Guardiola would have done that in a million years. He would probably deem it negative. But it was exactly what was needed.
Chelsea have the match-winners in their team but Conte is smart enough to use his tactical awareness to good effect. That is the balance you need. And that is why they are going to win the Premier League this season.