Football News: Is Jose Mourinho doing a good job at Manchester United

Image from: caufields.com

So many debates at the moment about whether Jose Mourinho is doing a good job at Manchester United or not.

My perspective is if he was doing a great job then there would be no debate. The very fact that it is debatable means he isn't doing as well as he could/ should.

Debates tend to force people into one camp or the other, left or right, yes or no ect ect. When in reality most of us are somewhere in between falling slightly to one side or the other without being on the extreme of that side.

I Jose is making some serious mistakes, and I think they will come back to bite him and us in the arse. That doesn't mean I think Jose is completely making a mess of it. There are some things he is doing very well.

I don't think measuring us up against other teams is helpful either, different teams with different expectations and pressures. Teams like Liverpool and Spurs haven't seen success in many years, for many fans they haven't seen Liverpool or Spurs have any real success in thier life time. So playing good football and finishing higher in the table might be enough to satisfy those fans.

Many of us are unhappy with the standard of football we are seeing every week. But would we really be happy playing more exciting football and being 4th/ 5th at this moment in time?

And would imagine many of us would be saying something like "playing good football isn't enough unless you can get the results to go with it, we are Manchester united not Arsenal" or something along those lines.

That being said Jose is making mistakes, he has singled out and bullied players at every club he has been at, and ultimately that has always turned the rest of the squad against him. He is doing that with Shaw right now. We can debate whether Shaw is working hard enough, keeping himself fit enough or performing well enough all we like. But not of that makes it okay for a senior member of staff to bully another member of staff.

We are talking about a 55 year old man publicly humiliating and bullying a 22 year old for no reason but to make the rest of the squad fear him and do as he says.

That is not okay. And it will ultimately cost Jose his job. It did twice at Chelsea and at Real Madrid.

His snide remarks at the fans and supporters will also come back to haunt him, his predecessor lost his job despite winning the FA cup because the fans turned on him.

Jose's constant need to be in conflict will cost him his job at our club, be it now, 6 months or 2 years time. He will eventually pick a fight he can't win.

His tactics although I don't wholly disagree with them (there is a time and a place for all tactics) they do make it harder to support him. On one hand they got us recent wins over Liverpool and Chelsea and have us second only to a record breaking team. Yet they also cost us a quarter final place in the UCL, the way we went out with a whimper upsetting many fans.

Yet, despite our current league position there is a feeling that this squad could be doing so much more if the shackles were loosened. Lukaku has scored 25 goals feeding off of scraps, how many would be have scored if he was playing for Liverpool or City? 30? 35? 40+?

Other than Lingard all our other offensive wingers/ midfielders have struggled for consistency. And let's be honest Lingard did nothing of real note until Christmas five months after the season got going and his form has dropped off since February. So he had a good two months, when Jose was forced to trust him. Then Jose signed Sanchez and Lingard has been pushed to the side and his form has dropped off. Not exactly great management.

Forward players rely on confidence, and I would imagine it is very hard to maintain that in the environment Jose seems to be creating. Negative tactics, not supporting our forward players and publicly shaming teammates to create a state of fear within the dressing room.

Jose Mourinho is a man who brings success, but makes it almost impossible for you to love him. How long will he be at our club and how much success he will have will depend on him be able to balance out his personality and reign in those tendencies that have cost him his job. Sadly I don't think his ego will let him do that.

For that reason I can't trust him as I should. I think the board need to be extra careful and make sure the cut Jose loose before he does any serious damage to the club/ squad. The next manager should be coming in to build on what Jose has created not spend the first year in charge fixing everything Jose has torn down.

Is it time to sack him? I don't know, but I hope those in charge of the club know when it is the right time to cut Jose loose.

Written by Shappy March 19 2018 12:41:23