Mourinho's career is like the plague. Has he run out of people to kill? | Barney Ronay

Oct 19, 2018

Manchester United’s trip to face Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea offers a clash of styles on and off the pitch and starts a defining run of matches for Mourinho

One reason put forward to explain why the great plague did not just keep on ravaging the human race forever is that it ran out of people to kill. The vulnerable succumbed. Those who were resistant grew stronger. Meanwhile the plague remained the same, stuck in its old plague ways, scowling on the periphery, reduced to the odd destructive burst.

There are of course many points of difference between José Mourinho’s approach to winning at football and the bubonic plague. But like the great plague Mourinho’s voracious early success has been followed by a period of dying back; like the plague Mourinho is still basically doing the same thing; and like the plague the high Mourinho style seems, at times, to have simply run out of people to kill.

Tags: Chelsea Football Football tactics José Mourinho Manchester United Maurizio Sarri Sport