The ManicaPost
YOURS TRULY is decidedly a Liverpool maniac of strong persuasion and supreme conviction (as some might be already aware by now) and may have no business taking interest in goings-on at our arch rivals Manchester United, but it was difficult to resist and impossible to ignore the occasion of the severance of their marriage with coach Jose Mourinho just 11 months after having renewed nuptial vows with a contract extension that would have subsisted until 2020.
History Repeating Itself
Curiously, as the Portuguese trainer plunged into his traditionally problematic third successive season in charge of a club the Red Devils’ current campaign imploded as they suffered a stuttering start to the term. For the two-time Champions League winner, old habits die hard. Cutting a sullen and haggard figure on the touchline or doling out warped and contrived ways seeing or explaining things (remember his three finger gesture at Chelsea and another similar goad to Juventus fans and sanitisation of the heavy defeat at home to Tottenham Hotspur) runs deep in his DNA.
Delaying the Inevitable
Trudging on with their indifferent form, it was inevitable that Jose would not last the distance. It was always coming that he would be sacked. For those who did not see it coming, they can now watch it go. Even some key players like short-stopper David de Gea — their most consistent, and not surprisingly, player of the year over the past four seasons — dithered on committing their long-term futures to the team owing to the direction the club was taking. Predictably, some players became uninterested and disillusioned under the sometimes delusional Mourinho who each time things did not go his way would swiftly harp on his earlier achievements, reminding all and sundry that he still remained the ‘Special One’. On such occasions he almost always gloated about his past glory, which he immensely immersed himself in.
Fractured relations with some players for one reason or the other at some point in time, in which bracket falls such players as club captain Antonio Valencia, Luke Shaw, Paul Pogba and Antony Martial, among others, increasingly made his position untenable. But Jose got himself into that fix. Something had to give.
And it was the former Real Madrid gaffer, who also divided the dressing room at Santiago Bernabéu, who bore the brunt.
Perhaps there was a tacit player mutiny, but Mourinho was largely his own enemy times without number. Jose was his own enemy who imperfectly funnelled his exertions for a sometimes ludicrous cause which created negative energy around the team as he needlessly crossed paths with players by pointlessly chastising them. Where Jose was moaning, the players and the fans were mourning.
Overtaken by the Game
An obdurate lot, Mourinho remained stubbornly trapped in his own archaic football fiefdom when the rest of other progressive elements of the game had moved on and evolved with scientific dynamism. He was – or, rather, is – becoming something of a dinosaur in the game, out of depth with its modern demands such as the technical and tactical aspects and it is hard to disagree that he must have reached his sell-by date. To lend credence to this assertion, the coach appeared unable to properly and fully exploit the talents of his own acquisitions like Pogba, Nemanja Matic, Romelu Lukaku, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Eric Bailly, Victor Lindelof and Diogo Dalot, and get the most or best out of them. This is the same man who snapped Alexis Sanchez from under the nose of his nemesis Pep Guardiola and neighbours Manchester City who were reportedly also interested in the forward just out of spite; and we all know how the ex-Arsenal and Barcelona star has fared thus far. Meanwhile, craving continuous reinforcements for centre-backs in Toby Alderweireld and Harry Maguire made little or no sense because it was him who bought and brought in Bailly and Lindelof for the same positions in the first place.
Pogba, intriguingly, was a marvel at Massimiliano Allegri’s Juventus before his career and form took a knock when he rejoined the Manchester United of Jose Mourinho; he went to the 2018 World Cup and suddenly got his stride and grove back as he starred in France’s triumph under 1998 World Cup-winning captain Didier Deschamps; yet upon returning to Old Trafford he somewhat slumped and stalled again.
Where Paul suddenly encountered his Damascene moment in Russia, he relapsed into Saul once back in Manchester. Maybe the Red Devils star, stripped of the club vice-captaincy by the boss, got sulking but where were Mourinho’s effective man-management skills as a coach? And it would be unjustified for Jose to complain that this was still not his team, of his own built, because he singed 11 players, enough to make a team, over his tenure at Old Trafford to add strength to depth to the squad that included already good players like David de Gea, Ander Herrera and Martial, among others. By any measure, this Manchester United had Mourinho’s fingerprints all over it.
Good Riddance
The general feeling and consensus is that the Old Trafford hierarchy made a good call and the right decision to fire Mourinho; the fans deserved better and were now demanding it as the record British champions continue to grope for a return to the perch in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era, the man who knocked Liverpool off it. Even the reactions of Pogba and Sanchez in the aftermath of their coach’s dismissal tell a story. While other teams around them looked to be making progress as the race for the championship and Champions League berths were hotting up, Manchester United cringed into a cold corner of retrogression; 11 points off the pace for qualification for the prestigious continental club competition (at the time Jose was sacked).
Things then wonderfully worked themselves out as if to prove Mourinho wrong and proffer a proper perspective: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, his interim replacement, got off to a dream start by masterminding the team’s highest winning margin in half-a-decade during a 5-1 rout of hapless Cardiff City; restored Pogba to the starting XI and in his preferred left-sided midfield role where he thrived with two assists and was heavily involved in the buildup of four goals, including that sumptuous pass for Herrera’s goal; United playing with attacking flair again which was epitomised by that flawless flow for Anthony Martial’s goal; while the hard-running and predatory youthful trio of Martial, Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard had a goal each.
Tottenham Spur’s massacre of Everton during that same weekend following Jose’s expulsion clearly showing that Mauricio Pochettino, the nailed-on choice and leading favourite to be Mourinho’s substantive successor has his modestly-assembled team proving that they are a team set up to play proper football with a clinical 6-2 demolition of Everton which saw them strengthen their hold of third spot and turning the heat on the City whom they now trail by only two points; firmly coming into the frame as genuine title contenders.
The next time we discuss coaches in the English Premier League in this space again, we shall dwell on Jurgen Klopp and Pochettino and their input into their respective clubs as well as their failures – perceived or otherwise.
If it is about football that you care let’s share the cheer because we are made for the game, mad about the game!
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The violence which marred our game during both legs of the Battle of Zimbabwe between Dynamos and Highlanders as well as the poor officiating by some referees were blemishes during the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League 2018 season. – Tawanda Mhlanga, Dangamvura.
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