Manchester United made the right choice by sacking Jose Mourinho. In fact, they made the only choice they had and one that should have come a lot sooner.
That’s because Mourinho is the worst Manchester United manager of the Premier League era. Yes, worse than his predecessors David Moyes and Louis van Gaal.
Their records are similarly mediocre. Mourinho was 84-32-28 in 144 games, a win percentage of 58.33. Van Goal was 54-25-24 (52.43) in his 103 games while Moyes was 27-9-15 (52.94) in 51 games. None obviously compare to the 895-338-267 record Sir Alex Ferguson had on the way to 13 Premier League titles and a myriad of other trophies.
Like Moyes and van Gaal, Mourinho failed to fill the impossible shoes of Ferguson. But unlike them, he willingly went against the ethos of the club at every turn. In fact, if it wasn’t due to his large personality and impressive resumé he would have been sacked well before he was.
Manchester United’s most recent 3-1 loss at the hands of their greatest rival on Dec. 16 is the perfect example of how United lost its way under Mourinho. Against Liverpool, United had just 36 per cent of the possession, six shots with two on goal, 211 passes completed and an expected goals rate of just 0.72. They were lucky to get the goal they did against the run of play.
Mourinho is supposed to be a pragmatic, defensive manager so how did United do trying to stop Liverpool’s expansive attack? The Reds enjoyed 64 per cent of the possession with 11 of their 36 shots reaching the goal. Liverpool also completed 457 passes and their expected goals was 3.03.
Those numbers don’t look like the two most storied clubs playing in a big match. They look like a big club playing a mid-table side. And that was what United has become. A very expensive mid-table side that spends like giants and plays like minnows.
United are now 19 points behind Liverpool after 17 Premier League games.
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What makes matters worse is United have a game changer on their roster but Mourinho was too stubborn to play him. After stripping Paul Pogba of his vice-captain status earlier in the year because he didn’t like the Frenchman’s social media usage, Mourinho became fixated on proving to the world that he was a bigger personality than his best player. Pogba didn’t start or even warm up at Anfield as Mourinho was never going to bring him on.
Pogba is United’s most expensive player and was one of the best players for France when it won the World Cup this past summer. If a manager can’t get the best out of that type of player the manager is not good enough, plain and simple.
With a shot at the Premier League title all but gone before the Christmas break, the next challenge for United is the first leg of the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 against Paris Saint-Germain on Feb. 12. Manchester United currently have 10-3 odds to advance to the quarterfinals while PSG is at 1-5, according to Bet365. The truth is United will be lucky to compete with PSG.
Much could change in the two months between now and when the Champions League resumes. United could sign one player that’s played in the Champions League already to bolster their squad, but the truth is they probably need 5-6 players to turn things around. But more importantly, they had no reason to trust Mourinho to select those players or to get the best out of them. There was no sign that given the transfer windows in January and the summer he’d be appreciably better.
In fact, the main reason for sacking Mourinho now would be to stop the inevitable mass exodus of players who would be lining up for a transfer away form the Red Devils next month.
The club signed 11 players under Mourinho. Recently he was only playing 2-3 any given week. That’s not a great return on investment.
Since Jose Mourinho was appointed, Man United have won fewer Premier League games than any of the big six teams, and took full points in just 50 of their 93 Premier League fixtures. In contrast, Manchester City (69), Tottenham (62), Chelsea (62), Liverpool (62) and Arsenal (52) have all won more games than United in that span.
United got the odd result here and there but they were uninspiring if not dreadful to watch under Mourinho. And there was nothing the club could build off of, which just delayed the inevitable. The team had no direction and no sense of optimism which wouldn’t have changed if Mourinho was given more time.
Not only did the collapse this season hurt the on-field performance, it also impacted the brand of the club. United’s value on the New York stock exchange has fallen by $1.2 billion (US) since July, although it bounced back by five per cent after Mourinho was sacked.
Mourinho was always going to be a bad fit for a club of United’s tradition. Manchester United’s identity for years has been as a club where the manager stays for a long time, building the team up through promoting academy players, playing attacking football and not criticizing club officials or players through the media.
Mourinho has done the exact opposite on all accounts at every stop he’s been to.
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Removing the manager is just a band aid to what is a deeper cut though, as the club’s problems run beyond just Mourinho.
This is Manchester United’s fourth coaching search in five years. Moyes’ original United contract still has five months left on it. United needs to enter the 21st century of football operations and hire a sporting director to bring in new ideas, new energy and a collective vision to the club.
They need to learn from the mistake that was the Jose Mourinho era.
Through the frequency and variety of ways in which he lost the dressing room, the self-proclaimed “Special One” isn’t so special anymore, and he turned his opportunity at the “Theatre of Dreams” into a nightmare.
