With Manchester United and Liverpool set to meet at Anfield on Monday, one manager’s approach seems stale while the other sounds the voice of modernityJosé Mourinho is only four years older than Jürgen Klopp but in football terms it can feel as though there is a lifetime between them. In part it is an issue of tactics: the hard, high press of which Klopp is such a devotee is modish. When Liverpool and Manchester City went to Tottenham this season and engaged in breathless, percussive styles, it felt like the football of today, the freshest ideas being pitched against each other. Mourinho’s style is more conventional. That does not render it invalid but, with the two managers’ sides poised to...
Managers must accept that modern footballers are delicate commodities but they are also valuable and public humiliations could prove expensiveWe’re all human resources executives now. Or perhaps it’s just felt that way this week as the argument over whether José Mourinho was right to criticise Luke Shaw in public ran on longer than your average employment tribunal.The young defender was singled out following Manchester United’s insipid 3-1 defeat to Watford last weekend. He was not the first individual to be treated in such a way by his manager this season: Eric Bailly, Daley Blind and Jesse Lingard have already felt the edge of Mourinho’s tongue. But the Portuguese was certainly unsparing. “Our left-back is 25 metres away instead of five,”...
Attacks on his players at both Manchester United and Chelsea exposes Mourinho’s failure to adapt and his loosening grip on his title as the masterIn one respect, of course, José Mourinho is right. Modern football is for ever trying to read too much into too little. One bad week – three poor results – is nothing compared to his previous career. Manchester United supporters, perhaps, will welcome his belligerence in attacking the “football Einsteins” who have “tried to delete 16 years of my career”. After a start to the season in which he has at times seemed slightly cowed, Mourinho has shown that there is fight left in him.Others will wonder, though, whether an edgy 3-1 victory in the EFL...
Three defeats in eight days have blown apart José Mourinho’s encouraging start at Old Trafford, but whether the problem is Rooney, Pogba, the defence or the midfield, the manager needs solutions, and fastAt the moment José Mourinho is a manager confused regarding his best XI or Manchester United would not have lost three consecutive games and the Portuguese suffer the run for a first time since his Porto days. The Portuguese’s indecisiveness is quaint for a glittering career built on the requisite ruthlessness. For the defeat against Manchester City in came Henrikh Mkhitaryan for a full debut despite an injury during the international break, and Jesse Lingard, who had not featured since the Community Shield for the same reason. This...
Defeat to the Hornets makes it three defeats in a row for Manchester United, while Manchester City’s perfect start continues. Plus: Stoke hit rock bottom and Inter win the Derby d’ItaliaSubscribe and review: iTunes, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, AcastOn today’s Football Weekly, AC Jimbo is joined by Barry Glendenning, Iain Macintosh and Michael Cox to look back on another exciting weekend from the best league in the world. Continue reading...