Jose and Man Utd - Another one bites the dust

After almost 2 and a half seasons at Manchester United, Jose Mourinho has left the club. This makes it yet another club that has sacked Mourinho in his 3rd season. For United fans, it has not come a moment too soon. Jose had managed to suck the enjoyment out of the club with his lifeless brand of football and his toxic personality.

I was one person who believed that Mourinho was the right person to take over when Sir Alex Ferguson retired back in 2013. United needed a big personality to handle the pressure of being Fergie's successor and Jose's methods did not seem so outdated back then. Instead, United (with Sir Alex's recommendation) went for David Moyes who found himself out of his depth at the club.

When United did hire Mourinho back in 2016, I thought it was the wrong call. United were a club in crisis after not qualifying for the Champions League. And Mourinho seemed to be in a crisis of his own, with his final season at Chelsea going horribly wrong. A club in crisis hiring a man on the back of his worst season as a manager did not appear to be a a good fit and as time would tell, it wasn't.

Mourinho's always favoured pragmatism to idealism. United knew this. He wasn't going to play expansive football. He preferred established stars over nurturing young talents. Both these traits were in contrast with the traditions of the club. For all his shortcomings, Louis van Gaal never shied away from giving youngsters a chance. These are things that United knew before hiring Jose.

But United were, in theory at least, a more patient club than the likes of Chelsea or Real. If Mourinho was ever going to settle down at a club long-term, it was going to be here (however unlikely that may be). But this gamble has not paid off.

United hired Mourinho for one simple reason - to win trophies. Winning the Carling Cup and the Europa League in his first season was a very promising start but things have gone sour ever since then. And everything you fear when hiring Mourinho did come true. The style of football has been horrible. He has also created a toxic environment at the club, constantly belittling players for poor results and deflecting blame away from himself.

Now in his third season, it has become clear that the results are just not good enough to justify tolerating Mourinho's undesirable traits. Champions League qualification already seems a bridge too far and it's not even Christmas. More importantly, the style of football is intolerable. Mourinho builds a team based on reactive football with fast counters. This has failed at both ends of the pitch. United are far from solid defensively and don't have the players to play primarily on the counter. United can do a quick counter well, in theory, but they don't have someone like Cristiano Ronaldo to justify playing predominantly this way. His lack of trust in the likes of Martial, Rashford and Pogba hasn't helped.

It also hasn't helped Jose that the footballing world and the Premier League has evolved in the past few years. Managers like Pep Guardiola, Mauricio Pochettino, Jurgen Klopp and Maurizio Sarri have all brought a distinctive brand of football at their respective clubs. Mourinho and United on the other hand, seem to be having an identity crisis and have unsurprisingly slipped below all of these clubs in the table.

The cracks in the relationship between Jose and the board has been evident for some time. Despite being given a new contract in January, he was apparently not allowed to bring in a new centre-back in the summer. Despite Anthony Martial falling out of favour with Mourinho, United seemed eager to want him to sign a new contract. This suggested that they knew that Mourinho's days at the club were numbered.

Jose's final game in charge of the club away to Liverpool perfectly summed up everything that was wrong with his reign. United lost 3-1 but that was not the issue. Liverpool had 36 shots on goal to United's 6. United barely had anything going for them in attack with their only goal coming from a goalkeeping error from Allison.

United's initial setup left Fabinho free in midfield to dictate play in the first half and he picked out Mane for the opening goal. Jose switched things up at half time by bringing on Fellaini for Dalot but this meant that Robertson at left back became an attacking outlet in the second half. Mourinho was reacting to the game instead of anticipating problems. He was always behind the eight ball.

United played cowardly football. The idea of sitting deep and preventing openings for Liverpool is a sound one but Mourinho takes it to the extreme. This game for Mourinho was similar to David Moyes' 2-2 draw against Fulham at Old Trafford in his single season at the club when United attempted at an absurd amount of crosses. Both these games, in completely different ways, showed how both men were not the right fit for the club.

The problems at United go deeper than just the manager. Player recruitment in the last 6 years or so must also be questioned. The decision to hire a caretaker manager until the summer is a prudent one. The club is in a mess and structural changes (possibly a director of football) are required to make United a force again.