An unattractive style of play and Paul Pogba’s lacklustre form are among the reasons that progress has stalled at Old TraffordThis was the season José Mourinho aimed to make Manchester United credible title challengers. Instead, the defeat at Newcastle United on Sunday leaves them 16 points behind Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. After an identical number of games last year Mourinho’s team were 17 points adrift of Chelsea, so their progress has stalled, at best. Here are some reasons why. Related: Mourinho’s Pogba problem grows after Benítez overcomes his old foe | Jonathan Wilson Continue reading...
The Premier League’s lack of downtime is much maligned – but few clubs are truly idle over an ever more frenzied ChristmasThe Champions League returns this week and, for many, the most thrilling football tournament in Europe and arguably the world starts now. The wheat has been separated from the chaff, the Juves and Bayerns from the Qarabags and Maribors. As the first country in the history of the competition to have five teams through to the last 16, England’s interest in the knockout stages has never been greater, even if José Mourinho believes it will end sooner rather than later because of the absence of a winter break in the football calendar.Speaking in November, the Manchester United manager poo-poohed...
The Chilean has similarities to Carlos Tevez, a key man in the 2007-08 side, and may give José Mourinho’s attack an edgeIn Alexis Sánchez, José Mourinho is about to acquire another world‑class player as he plots to make Manchester United an elite domestic and European force again. Manchester City hold a 12-point advantage over Mourinho’s team so a credible title challenge will have to wait until next season. Yet Sánchez’s arrival can help to propel United to a strong finish and light up the Champions League campaign that they will resume next month with a last-16 tie against Sevilla.This is why Mourinho was hired: to make United England’s dominant side once more and return them to the rank of continental...
Trying to talk people into believing Manchester United are a plucky underdog is not fooling anyone, but Mourinho is running out of arguments against why his great rival appears to be simply superior“I am bound upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears do scald like molten lead”.I tried not to write a José Mourinho column ever again. Even starting this one it feels only right to acknowledge there is no obvious excuse for talking quite so much about a football manager who is, for all his widescreen presence, a surprisingly prosaic character these days. Related: Antonio Conte says José Mourinho has memory problem in fierce attack on rival Related: Paul Pogba fills attacking gap as Everton and United...
The manager’s complaints over a lack of spending are amusing but there is no doubt Manchester City’s rise has made the job of bringing success back to Old Trafford more difficultIn terms of attention-grabbing headlines and photographs of Manchester United’s manager looking less than delighted with life, José Mourinho truly is the Christmas gift that keeps on giving. Yet amusing as it was to hear the erstwhile Special One complaining that his club have not yet spent enough to compete with the likes of Burnley and Leicester, it must be conceded that Mourinho has a point when he talks of a difference between big clubs and big teams.United are a big club, he suggested, but not yet a big team....