Jose Mourinho has a record of being a winner, even at Man Utd he collected silverware including a European trophy but there is a feeling that he is no longer the manager he once was, that he has not evolved.
In some quarters, the jury is still out on whether he has “lost” his touch but one thing the so-called special one has not lost is his encyclopedia of excuses and in all fairness, he has been justified to some degree this season with the number of players he has lost due to injury.
But his tactics have been very questionable, his lack of ambition obvious, his reluctance to experiment a frustration and his habit of calling players out in public a strange strategy, to say the least.
There comes a point when the buck stops with the manager and I believe we are at that stage right now.
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Mourinho has almost a full squad to choose from now, his players are refreshed, he has had more than enough time to instil his vision and ideas into the players and he does not have to deal with a lack of confidence within the squad.
To some degree it is now a level playing field for most clubs and the deciding factor could come down to the quality of the manager.
Take the upcoming game against Man Utd, both teams are fairly balanced in terms of quality players and so the only really glaring difference is the quality of the manager and so an argument can be constructed that Mourinho should be getting the better of Solskjaer but I am not as confident as I should be that he will.
This is the time for Mourinho to justify his appointment, to show he still has it, that he alone can be the difference. If he does not then what is the point of him? He was hired to deliver trophies based on his previous record but if he cannot start producing results on a consistent basis when he has a fully fit squad at his disposal then maybe he is not the manager he thinks he is.
Utd’s team compared to our is fairly balanced.Whatever you’re on I’ll have some.
Currently I would take their defence and midfield over ours,perhaps with the exceptions of Lo Celso and Toby.It’s only up front where Kane and Sonny are better.But that’s what spending money on the team gets you.
I remain to be convinced by Mourinho,and he has not had the best of starts for one reason or another.However the time to deliver is now and the odds are stacked against him I would suggest.No CL and he could be history through no fault of his own.
Give Mourinho quality players to do the job he wants them to do and he’ll do well. I’d say this goes for any manager worth their salt. Guardiola admits his style of play demands a certain quality of player. Brendan Rodgers had to change Liverpool’s tiki taka tactic because he didn’t have enough quality players to play in that way. At the moment Jose doesn’t have the quality, particularly in defensive positions. Aurier has been an accident waiting to happen, Lloris has forgotten where his near post is, Vertonghen’s legs have gone and our left back is ‘meh’. Don’t even get me started on midfield. The errors for our goals against have been League One standard. No manager can legislate for that.
In fairness to Mourinho I wouldn’t say that this is his team in the sense that he’s been here two years brought in all the players he wants and has the team playing his style of football. He’s inherited a team built by someone else and a team that most agree is in decline. Attempts to work on the tactics he wants will have been frustrated by the virus isolating everyone and most of the work done will have been fitness. Judging him on what happens over the next nine games would be unfair. Time is what managers need and what they rarely get. It’s taken Klopp several years to shape his team so at least give Mourinho the same opportunity.
Read the Lloris interview in the Guardian amongst other media outlets, which gives a fair assessment of the situation at the club over the past year or so. Also Ben Davies gave an interview to BBC , saying how desperate the players feel to want to play .
Josacramento “got this