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Circus ManUnitus - Erik's At The Wheel

At Mourinho's next presser, I hope someone questions why he thinks 2 of the centre-backs he signed for 30m each aren't any good. And why, after spending £400m on players is he so heavily reliant on players who were already at the club?

Of 5 senior centre-backs at the club, the 3 he prefers (Jones, Smalling, Rojo) he didn't sign. He's bitching about not having good enough centre-backs, spends £400m and signs two centre-backs who are worse than 3 already at the club. This is on him. The club have previously signed HIS targets, players like Lukaku and Matic are Mourinho players. After spunking all that dough, the board are (rightfully, imo) questioning his judgement.
 
The board are probably all too aware that Mourinho hasn't finished a fourth season at any club, so its better to spend with an eye to the future than placating him now. Although this strategy might end up bringing about its premise. The point made a page or so back about them choosing a third way between two good strategies seems may be pertinent.

A fun question would be to ask him if the board should have backed him or sacked him. His reply response could be interesting.
 
markysimmo said:
It won't happen, they are all too scared of him
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He's the monster they created, all the years of giggling like schoolgirls at his inane comments have made him believe he is charming and witty, that along with the club's letting him spend like a drunken sailor have allowed him to lose all touch with reality.
 
I think he was charming and witty to start with, which is why they liked him. He was always cynical and manipulative, but he had the charm and wit on top. He has turned bitter and nasty since then and his cynicism and manipulation no longer work effectively, even if they dominate the news cycle.

It's almost as if our 3-0 win at OT, one of our best results there ever, and Mourinho's worst home loss, has been expunged from the history books. It's all about Mourinho.

How José Mourinho can fix United’s problems
Never mind transfers, there are simple steps United could take now to trigger upturn in results, says Paul Hirst

Pick a centre-back pairing and stick with it

One of the reasons why José Mourinho was so successful in his first spell at Chelsea was because of the centre-back partnership between John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho. During Mourinho’s first season, when he won the title by 12 points, Chelsea conceded just 15 goals with those two at the back, a Premier League record. Mourinho has been unable to settle on a consistent pairing at United.

This was not so much of a problem last season — thanks mainly to the performances of David De Gea — but they cannot keep relying on their goalkeeper. United have conceded seven goals in their opening three matches this term. Eric Bailly and Victor Lindelof had not started a league game together until this season and it showed in the opening two matches as they let four goals in. Mourinho needs to take Lindelof out of the firing line. It looks like he is nowhere near good enough to play for United.

Bailly is out of favour after the Brighton debacle, but he is the strongest option United have so he should be a certain starter. Chris Smalling and Phil Jones have begun 17 games together — more than any other pairing Mourinho has used — but they do not possess the composure to play alongside each other and neither did well against Spurs.

Maybe Mourinho should give Marcos Rojo, who returns to training today, a chance to play alongside Bailly as he is left-footed and would provide balance.
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Simple and basic, possibly too much so for the special one.

I don't hold out too much hope for the other suggestions: "Make Pogba feel loved" or "Be ruthless with Sánchez". Carrot and stick is supposed to be applied to the same individual.

 
the dza said:
At Mourinho's next presser, I hope someone questions why he thinks 2 of the centre-backs he signed for 30m each aren't any good. And why, after spending £400m on players is he so heavily reliant on players who were already at the club?

Of 5 senior centre-backs at the club, the 3 he prefers (Jones, Smalling, Rojo) he didn't sign. He's bitching about not having good enough centre-backs, spends £400m and signs two centre-backs who are worse than 3 already at the club. This is on him. The club have previously signed HIS targets, players like Lukaku and Matic are Mourinho players. After spunking all that dough, the board are (rightfully, imo) questioning his judgement.
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Did he not chase lukaku out of Chelsea?
 
jts1882 said:
I think he was charming and witty to start with, which is why they liked him. He was always cynical and manipulative, but he had the charm and wit on top. He has turned bitter and nasty since then and his cynicism and manipulation no longer work effectively, even if they dominate the news cycle.

It's almost as if our 3-0 win at OT, one of our best results there ever, and Mourinho's worst home loss, has been expunged from the history books. It's all about Mourinho.

How José Mourinho can fix United’s problems

Simple and basic, possibly too much so for the special one.

I don't hold out too much hope for the other suggestions: "Make Pogba feel loved" or "Be ruthless with Sánchez". Carrot and stick is supposed to be applied to the same individual.
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My grandkids are a bundle of fun when they win at Monoploy and the full Moaninho when they lose but they are under 11, he needs to grow up and realise in the media world you're great when you win and a stupid macaron when you lose.
 
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They are in quite a bind. Mourinho doesn't do player improvement, so they need to get rid of him if they aren't going to let him have any amount of money he wants, which it looks as though they're not. Of course, in the current climate, there's no cast-iron guarantee of securing the players he asks for, even if they were, but if they do get rid, not only will it cost them plenty to pay him off, but where do they go from here?

It's fairly obvious Pochettino would be at or close to the top of their list (every time Gary Neville opens his mouth in relation to his old club he can't seem to stop himself talking about our manager), but the club know, and their little gang of media mouthpieces know it too, that there's no point even thinking about it at this stage because they haven't a prayer of getting him.

On the other hand, if they were to bring someone else like Zidane in before the end of this season (even presuming Zizou fancies living in Manchester), that could tie their hands in the summer in terms of kicking off an all-out Poch-4-United campaign as well.

Their recruitment model is failing them. They've been used to being able to parasitise other clubs (notably us) for finished product for years just by waving a wad of cash, but that doesn't necessarily do the trick any more and now their squad is looking a bit of an incoherent mess.

On balance, I think they will decide to stick with Moaninho till the end of this season (assuming there isn't a complete and utter meltdown), and then go balls out for Pochettino next summer.
 
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glasgowspur said:
Did he not chase lukaku out of Chelsea?
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As I remember it, Lukaku was too young by Mourinho standards when he first went there and went on loan to Everton (after he'd had a good loan spell at WBA). Chelsea then went and bought Costa and Lukaku didn't want to be backup, so they sold him to Everton.

For Utd, he wanted a big lump number 9 and they were in for either Morata or Lukaku. Morata went to Chelsea and Utd bought Lukaku. He always likes a big physical player upfront and Lukaku fits the profile (also one of the few players to actually get praised by Mourinho at Utd).
 
the dza said:
As I remember it, Lukaku was too young by Mourinho standards when he first went there and went on loan to Everton (after he'd had a good loan spell at WBA). Chelsea then went and bought Costa and Lukaku didn't want to be backup, so they sold him to Everton.

For Utd, he wanted a big lump number 9 and they were in for either Morata or Lukaku. Morata went to Chelsea and Utd bought Lukaku. He always likes a big physical player upfront and Lukaku fits the profile (also one of the few players to actually get praised by Mourinho at Utd).
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Jeez he must be madder than I thought if he can find anything to praise lukaku about.
 
He doesn't have many options for offering praise. At least Lukaku is a big lump who scores occasionally. Few of his other outfield players fit the required description.
 
I really wish we had scored a couple of more goals and made it a proper tonking. I don’t really hate united, but I despise mourinho and I wish it had been us that drove the final nail in the coffin.
 
mudshark said:
Their recruitment model is failing them. They've been used to being able to parasitise other clubs (notably us) for finished product for years just by waving a wad of cash, but that doesn't necessarily do the trick any more and now their squad is looking a bit of an incoherent mess.
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This. They always took the ‘best of the rest’ which was a decent strategy to get Prem proven players whilst maintaining a gap to most of the league - even Goons gave them their last title by allowing RVP to go there for Fergies swansong. They tried to repeat the trick with Sanchez, but instead of chucking a lot of money at a 30 goal a season striker and weakening the team one place below them at the time, they are basically overpaying for a 29 year old one trick pony just to spite City. I thought everything pointed at Maguire going there, but a combination of the sky money for smaller clubs and the more competitive top 6 means they actually need to scout players. Another strength they had was the ability to integrate academy graduates as part of the squad to reinforce the adherence to the manager (and seemingly clubs) ethos.

It’s a little like the best player in the playground, who is also the biggest getting found out later on when the others catch up physically, as they’ve always relied on their size rather than developing their technique.
 
mudshark said:
Their recruitment model is failing them. They've been used to being able to parasitise other clubs (notably us) for finished product for years just by waving a wad of cash, but that doesn't necessarily do the trick any more and now their squad is looking a bit of an incoherent mess.
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The squad:

UNITED'S 2018/19 PREMIER LEAGUE SQUAD NUMBERS

GK
1. David De Gea
13. Lee Grant
22. Sergio Romero
40. Joel Pereira

DF
2. Victor Lindelof
3. Eric Bailly
4. Phil Jones
12. Chris Smalling
16. Marcos Rojo
18. Ashley Young
20. Diogo Dalot
24. Tim Fosu-Mensah
25. Antonio Valencia
23. Luke Shaw
36. Matteo Darmian
38. Axel Tuanzebe

MF
6. Paul Pogba
8. Juan Mata
14. Jesse Lingard
15. Andreas Pereira
17. Fred
21. Ander Herrera
27. Marouane Fellaini
31. Nemanja Matic
39. Scott McTominay

FW
7. Alexis Sanchez
10. Marcus Rashford
11. Anthony Martial
9. Romelu Lukaku

Youth squad filler
44. Tahith Chong
45. Kieran O'Hara
46. Joshua Bohui
47. Angel Gomes
48. Ethan Hamilton
51. Matej Kovar


I think you are right. Theres not even a particularly obvious team out of that lot, it doesnt scream quality (although is large), and theres not an obvious 'theme' to the buys they make.
 
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