Defeat would draw parallels with the last season United went out of Europe by Christmas, facing a backlash many thought would cost Alex Ferguson his jobUnderwhelming results on both domestic and European fronts. An ageing, totemic club captain creating unwanted headlines. Controversy over the public criticism of players. A megalomaniac, authoritarian manager some observers believe to be past his sell-by date and in danger of losing the plot. To say that Manchester United are anywhere near crisis point as they fight for their survival in the Europa League would be overstating the case but it is noteworthy that the side preparing for Thursday’s crucial match against Feyenoord does have plenty in common with the most recent version of the club...
José Mourinho has lamented his side’s poor fortune after the home draws against Arsenal, Burnley and Stoke but a look at the statistics tells a different storyThere was an amusing moment when José Mourinho spoke to the press after Manchester United’s draw against Arsenal as the manager attempted to suggest he was at a disadvantage compared with rivals because of the short period of time he has been at the club. “Look how long Mr Wenger has been with his team,” he began, predictably but reasonably enough. The next manager he mentioned was Mauricio Pochettino, however, who has not exactly been at Tottenham for a lifetime, and when the only other example he could think of was Jürgen Klopp, just...
A third successive home draw will not make the manager’s life any easier after Arsenal earned a point through Olivier Giroud’s late levellerIt is a moot point whether Arsenal fans have any right to make the claim that he is “not special any more” after what José Mourinho would describe as their specialising in failure years, but they know what needles Manchester United and their manager.The home side have not been special enough this season, Mourinho has even begun blaming his success in the past for the raised expectations that are currently going unfulfilled at Old Trafford, and if United are back in the realms of the ordinary there is no longer anything special about this fixture other than its...
Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s suspension for the Arsenal game means Rashford may be asked by José Mourinho to play in the role where he made a huge impact last season, including two goals against Arsène Wenger’s sideMarcus Rashford’s big audition for José Mourinho’s Manchester United will come against Arsenal on Saturday if he is handed the No9 berth. Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s one-game suspension means a vacancy opens up at centre-forward in a major match for the first time since Mourinho took over and made the Swede his totem signing.It was against Arsenal that Rashford got his first Premier League goals last February, scoring twice after he had done the same on his debut against Midtjylland three days earlier, and he will hope to...
The Manchester United manager has always demanded a level of athletic masochism from his players and not everyone at Old Trafford is appreciating it“I do not like talking about injured players,” José Mourinho announced a few months before he left Real Madrid – shortly before going on to talk, rather darkly, about assorted injured players and provide in the process another in a series of similar digressions through the sullen, dying autumn of his time at the Bernabéu.In reality, of course, the opposite is true. Mourinho loves talking about injured players. Or at least he certainly spends a lot of time doing it. Some may see an odd coincidence in Mourinho’s comments about Luke Shaw and Chris Smalling refusing to...