When Jose Mourinho signed for Manchester United last summer, it was seen as a chance at restoring his battered pride and reputation. His dealings in the transfer market involved he making some shrewd and astute signings not forgetting expensive. United's early season form implied the transformation from Van Gaal's brand of hypnotic football to a more direct and clinical team. Or so we thought.
With a stop start season with their best run so far coming in August where they picked all points available in the league. A topsy-turvy season with twelve games in the league has yielded 19 points, their worst return since the 2004/05 season after the draw with Arsenal. His form in Europe has not been as encouraging as he has lost all his games away from home. His only 100% record has come in the English Football League Cup.
A closer look at performances indicate Mourinho is having tactical difficulties merging his old and new players into a characteristic Mourinho unit. Reports from Carrington indicate a 'cold and distant' approach to training which have yielded some embarrassing results this season. The form of some key men at the Theater Of Dreams have been extremely poor and appalling causing the team to depend on the individuals to get results.
All these and more are not the usual Mourinho approach to the game. He has the job of his dreams but he appears to be in some nightmare of some sort. The usual swagger and arrogance associated with Jose and his teams has disappeared with apparent glimpses every once in a while. The United top dogs must see Mourinho as the protagonist of the dark arts and give him the support he needs to jump start United's season. There has been financial support but that has been it. A little more of executive support in the Mourinho ways will set him free off his shackles of being the gentleman-ly character United want at the helm of affairs.
The players must become display some tactical flexibility as the new manager seeks to find a system that will make United great again. With a squad such as his, there should be no shortage of quality and this should allow Mourinho to experiment and try out varied systems. The onus lies on the manager to create a winning team but the team has to have the drive to be winners, something that retired along with Sir Alex Ferguson. It is up to the players to give the manager a selection headache; something Mourinho has not had since he took the helm at Old Trafford. Rooney and co. must get out their prolonged slumps and give Old Trafford the fear factor, Mourinho special again and United great once more.
From a manegerial perspective, some quarters of the footballing world have labelled Mourinho a tactical dinosaur and his refusal to move away from his favored 4-2-3-1 and 4-5-1 formations give credence to this opinion. Times have changed and these systems may have been effective for him in the past but a bit of innovation and tweaking every once in a while is one of the ingredients to make him a tough nut to crack again. Antonio Conte's tweaks this season have created one of the league's top teams in the early parts of the season. Switching from 4-1-4-1 to 4-2-4 then to 4-3-3 and 3-5-2 and finally 3-4-3 have given Chelsea a more varied approach to play and keep opponents guessing. Klopp's Liverpool have started 12 games with 4 different systems and so has Pep Guardiola at City. The importance of tactical variation and tweaks cannot be stressed enough and Mou must adopt these to get himself and United back to the top of English football.
With about 12 games in the league and 16 overall Mourinho has time to become The 'Special One' again and United have time to be great again but they have to be quick for time and tide, wait for no man.
