The bond the manager once was able to forge with players appears to have gone completely at Old Trafford, even if fans may still back him against a petulant Paul Pogba
The most startling thing, looking at José Mourinho, close-up, as he tried to pretend everything was still OK, were the dark rings beneath his eyes. His stare was wild, the eyes rheumier than we have seen them before. He looked, frankly, as if he needed a good night’s sleep. Sam Allardyce once noted how David Moyes had aged 10 years at Manchester United and it is starting to seem as if the same could be said of the current manager.
OK, it’s a football game, not a fashion parade, but if you remember the days when the younger Mourinho turned up looking so debonair, with his tailored suits and immaculately coiffured hair, it was quite something to see him, frazzled, in his blue hoodie and white T-shirt, looking more like a bloke from Gogglebox than the guy who once seemed to hold the keys to the football universe. Mourinho’s appearance always reveals his mood. He wanted to pick an argument with the Sky interviewer when there was no argument to be had. His post-match press conference was a no-show and that was strange, too, when he once made it his business to have the final word.
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Mourinho wears his players down, he makes it a grind and, eventually, the players at the sharp end turn against him.
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