Mourinho’s problems

The question people are asking now is, where did it go wrong for Jose Mourinho at Old Trafford? The honest answer is it never was a right fix from the start. A lot of Old Trafford faithful, including former players, have been against his appointment from day one.

Manchester United has a very rich history and tradition. They have a way of doing things. They keep matters in the boardroom and dressing room in-house, they don’t discuss them on the pages of newspapers. They have a style of play, entertaining, expansive and effective football.

Now, Mourinho is the direct opposite of all this. He thrives on playing to the gallery. He enjoys playing his silly mind games in the press. He attacks his bosses, his rivals and his own players is the media, he uses journalists to build his siege mentality.

Manchester United hierarchy knew all this before they appointed him as their manager. They panicked when Manchester City got Pep Guardiola, probably the best manager in the world. The Ed Woodward led crew must have thought they needed to match that. They must have remembered that Mourinho gave Pep a run for his money when they were coaches at Spain, Pep at Barcelona and Jose at Real Madrid.

They then must have forgotten all the baggage that comes with Mourinho or they probably thought they would be able to manage him. So against their better judgement, they employed Mourinho. The rest is history.

It all started fairly well in the first season when Mourinho was able to win the Europa League Cup and the Carling Cup. Then Zlatan Ibrahimovic got injured and his contract was terminated. Zlatan has an ego the size of the ocean but he is old school and a complete professional.

He was the boss of the dressing room and he was able to keep all the other egos in check. He led by example on the pitch so he was able to lead the team off it. He would not ask you to do what he can’t do and most times he would even do it better. In that wise, he had his teammates’ respect.

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When Zlatan left, the position of Mr Ego went to Paul Pogba. Now, Pogba is not from the same era and mentality as Zlatan. While Zlatan will not feel completely satisfied with a game if the team’s performance was not up to expected level even if he scored a hat trick, Pogba won’t be too sad if the team lost as long as he was made man of the match.

Mourinho enjoyed a good relationship with Ibrahimovic as his leader on and off the pitch, but with Pogba, it has been a romance full of ups and downs. While Jose still believes in the old school way of motivating players to go the extra mile, Pogba is of the new generation of players who expect to be treated as kings. He believes he is a beautiful bride who is wanted by practically all the big clubs and that if a manager does not dance to his tunes he will just move to the next club.

Pogba believes he is indispensable to the present Manchester United team, the board also seems to believe that, the plan was to build the new generation of United stars round him, that was why they paid top dollar to get him back from Juventus.

Mourinho could have cut his wings right from the moment they started growing abnormally, but the Portuguese is not one who likes to take responsibilities, he likes to shift the blame to anyone else. Respected managers like Sir Alex Ferguson, Pep Guardiola and even Louis van Gaal would have dropped Pogba from the team, let him play with the kids until he gets his senses back. But Mourinho did not want to take that risk. He didn’t want to take on the responsibility. He didn’t want to take the necessary decision and stand by it, especially if the team starts to lose and people begin to query his reasons for dropping Pogba. Instead, Mourinho decided to do what he loves best, start a verbal war in the media.

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These tactics may have worked with the old generation of players but with the new crew, it only makes you appear petty and small minded. When players in the dressing room see their colleague who has exchanged words with the manager publicly and on social media go unpunished, they tend to lose respect for the manager. The fear factor is gone. That was how Mourinho lost the dressing room. All the noise about him not being allowed to buy multi million pounds defenders is pure nonsense and stupid excuses. Three of Liverpool’s first choice back four were not bought with multi million bucks, they are players from the academy and that hasn’t hindered them from being second in the league, that hasn’t stopped them from being unbeaten in the league this season.

The major problem Mourinho has is that he doesn’t have the skills set to manage players of the modern era. The earlier he accepts that, the earlier he can find a way forward.