19 May 2017 11:42:39
Tony wrote a great post further down the page and made several very good points.
I agree I have been left a little underwhelmed with Jose this season. And I didn't want him in the first place.
He has picked fights where he didn't need to, and has seemed rather unhappy for most of the season.
Tactically for me is where he has been most disappointing though.
Now tactically our season can be broken down in to three parts, the start with he went 4231 with a No.10 this left us far too open, especially against the better sides. After we got beat by Chelsea he switched to 433 with three midfielders. We were far more solid and we controlled games far easier, but with limited penetration on the flanks and none of the midfielders pushing to get forward we lacked numbers in the box and struggled to break teams down. Mourinho compounded that by regularly having digs at our forwards for their lack of efficiency in front of goal. This knocked their confidence and set them on a downward trajectory.
He then switched back to 4231 with the defenders now drilled in how to defend the way Jose wants we are less exposed then we were at the start of the season, but we are still struggling to put teams to bed. I blame this on the lack of confidence our forwards have after Jose threw them under the bus in the middle part of the season.
We have a far better squad than 6th place would suggest. Clearly it still needs some work, but for me the biggest problems this season have been caused by Jose.
19 May 2017 12:21:01
Agree mostly with that Shappy.
Underwhelmed is a very good word for it. At this point we have had an underwhelming season, we thought top four was a given (i did anyway) so 6th isn't good.
IF we win the europa then underwhelming is upgraded to decent FIRST season with the league cup. don't get me wrong, next season with new additions to the squad will need to include a genuine attempt at the league title too!
On the squad, individually we have a very good team. However, a team is more than this.
As a team we have some new additions coupled with guys who have played together for a couple of seasons. Some have worked better (Ander) some have declined (a few of them) .
Add to the above - a new Manager and we have been shown for what we are which is a team with no pre-season and a team that took time to find our first 11. And even now we know our first 11, it still needs major surgery IMO.
Next season will show if Jose is what we need.
19 May 2017 13:10:00
Shappy, did you ever want mourinho at the club? I'm not sure if you've told us before 😂.
19 May 2017 13:19:10
Our defence is very poor. We need to finally address this properly in the summer.
19 May 2017 13:31:01
Angel, I play my cards close to my chest. Lol😂.
19 May 2017 15:53:31
He needs to relax and create the right environment. Things are better for the players than under LVG, but they must be getting frustrated with all the negativity. After what happened at Chelsea I was expecting slightly more humility.
19 May 2017 19:11:17
I didn't want Jose at United, but he is here and will get my support until he has had a fair crack at it. We'll see in 12 months where we are.
19 May 2017 19:27:41
Brendan, same here, I'm not proposing a change, I'd just like the atmosphere to lift.