United heading down Blind alley with Mourinho

Simon Mullock

DUTCH legend Danny Blind has launched a blistering attack on Manchester United manager Jose

Mourinho.

Blind, the former Ajax captain and the father of ex-united defender

Daley Blind, has blasted Mourinho’s tactics, lack of playing style and poor recruitment strategy.

Despite yesterday’s

4-1 thrashing of Fulham, he reckons United are on the road to nowhere.

And he has pinpointed Mourinho’s mishandling of Paul Pogba as proof that the United boss has lost the plot.

Blind (right), who coached Ajax and Holland’s national team, said: “Jose can’t even get the right formation any more. He has not t bought the right players and the football is not based on a playing style with clarity for the players.

“For example, he is always changing his line of defenders.

“One match he has five at the back, then four at the back and, when I look at some matches, he is actually playing with six players in a straight line at the back when they have the ball.

“The positioning of the players is shocking. Even Southampton had their lines and positions in better shape last week.”

The pressure is growing on Mourinho after his failure to mount a sustained title challenge in his third season at the club.

And, off the pitch, the Reds boss has been waging war with £89million record signing Pogba over poor performances.

Blind, whose son was sold back to Ajax by Mourinho for £14m in the summer, claimed: “There is absolutely nothing to build on for United when they go forward, either.

“Jose should have bought a proper passer for his midfield. A player who will always choose to pass forward and will feed the strikers.

“At FC Porto, he had Deco, at Inter he had Wesley Sneijder, at Chelsea he had Frank Lampard.

“What does he have at United? Pogba. But he is not a passer. It is the wrong choice by Jose to play Pogba in that current midfield role. “When Pogba was at Juvenjuventus he was plaplaying in front oof the defence.

“He can do that role or you let him pplay in a dydynamic role behindbehi the front two, where he keeps entering the 18-yard box.”

There are persistent rumours that Pogba will leave United, who look unlikely to finish even in the top four.

But Blind said Pogba’s big problem is that the physicality he showed in Italy with Juventus is not such an asset in the Premier League because opponents are equally physical.

“One thing Jose has to do with Pogba is instruct him to play simple,” the 57-year-old said.

“He is the kind of player who wants to come up with complicated solutions or difficult options. And he wants to have 100,000 touches of the ball.

“He wants to shake off opponents by showing his strength before he turns with the ball.

“But, in the Premier League, all of his opponents are equally strong. He just can’t do it. So make him pass the ball direct and simply.”