3
matches and 3 defeats in the span of 8 days is not the result what you had expected
when Jose was appointed as the manager of Manchester united, but it had
happened. All of a sudden, there emerges a mild crisis and series of
doubts about Mourinho's tactics. Is the special one losing his special
touch and becoming an outdated coach while comparing to his young
counterparts? I would say a big no because the special one cannot become a
miserable one in 18 months.
With Jose around, you can feel an
aura of positivism while winning and on the flip side you may
feel more negativity while losing. This negativity cost his job at Real Madrid and
Chelsea. He cannot afford the same mistake to take place in Old Tr-afford. With the defeat against Watford, Mourinho has
lost 14 of his last 32 games and it may be shocking and sound terrible for a
man whom it took 105 games to lose 14 matches earlier. He himself pointed out
last year that if the losses had occurred early in his career, he may accept,
but it is occurring at the wrong time of mid life of his managerial career.Coming to Manchester United, the problems are the
continuity of Louis van Gaal's footballing philosophy and the poor form of
certain key players including Captain Rooney.
The first and foremost job of Joe
should be finding the correct formation and build the team around Paul Pogba. Playing
players at different positions is also hurting United. The best example is the
game against Watford, where
Joe used multiple strategies like playing Rashford and Martial at left and
right wing initially and when that move backfired, he switched them
vice-versa and Rashford, to his
credit involved himself more when played at right than left. It may sound
unfair but still it is important that his forwards must improve the standards
of ball clearing while performing their defensive duties. Marcus was also
responsible for the first goal since his poor ground clearance leads to the
move that created Watford's first goal. While considering martial, His head
injury and the bit fair crunching tackle might forced to him retire quickly but
he must aware enough to know he needs to improve his standards in order to
satisfy his manager. Joe cannot expect martial to become Eden Hazard of Chelsea.
The perennial problem surrounding
Manchester United is Rooney's Form because his performance was completely
awful. While addressing about Rooney's role, Joe said that earlier he will play as no. 10, 9 or even 9 and half, but never
an 8. But English Captain's poor form led Jose to play him in the midfield role
again in order to give Pogba a more advanced role.
Time to Strike Back: Boom!
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Restlessness also
affects Manchester United and Jose was wrong to left Rooney out
of his Europa league fixture against Feyenoord because the pitch was a tad slow
one and the united players really found hard to speed up the movement. In a
game like this you will score through long balls or from the corners, with both
Rooney and Valencia were rested , ball movement from wing were less until the
introduction of Ashley Young. Playing Mata instead of Rooney in the
game is not a wise decision since Mata is more creative and instinctive
when the game is played at a rapid pace Whereas Rooney of right now, will spread the play wide by
passing to the wingers, it is where united lost the plot at Feyenoord. I
would personally want Jose to play the Europa league with academy players (Other than main fourteen) and
the form out players like Rooney and Martial. It may sound ridiculous, but it
would give more rest time to his main players and the form out players can earn
back their form and also gives a chance to academy prospects.
And for formations Mourinho can
prefer former united player Owen Hargreaves idea of 4-3-1-2 instead of 4-2-3-1.
In 4-3-1-2 Mourinho can use Pogba at left and veteran Carrick at the center and
Herrera at the right and at upfront Ibra and Rooney will be supported by
Henrikh Mkh\Mata. I would personally
prefer the 4-3-2-1 with the previous midfield players and will play
Lingard\Rashford with Mkh as attacking duo with Ibra at the front. If I were to play the same 4-2-3-1 position, I
would choose Daley Blind as the defensive midfielder instead of Fellani
and Pogba as the N0-8. The reason is quite simple that Fellani is not a
Matic (who can
make some extraordinary individualistic run and along with monstrous tackling). As Paul Scholes (I also
feel) said Fellani might be playing well but he is not the partner Paul needed
at the center. With the schedule is
more tight and hard in the upcoming weeks, It is high time that Mourinho and
his men's started to react or else Jose will be the one who will be in more
trouble than his players. Win or Lose, I will always back and support Mourinho
and don't be surprised if Jose men's turn the tide rather sooner than later.
Note: Views shared here are completely personal as a fan of
Jose and his men..,
