Confirmed and Official - Welcome to Old Trafford José Mourinho

Agreed. I brought this up before we bought Pogba. I think he's a luxury player in that he can't be the focal point in terms of responsibility. He's not the guy to lead a team. But if you build it in a way that takes the load off of him, that's when you'll see his best game.

 

Focus might have been the incorrect word. I dont see Pogba has been the leader of the team, in a Keano type role.

But based on the squad we have now, the clearest path to winning is to build the team and the formation around Pogba, and to have us and him play to his strengths.

It makes no sense to shoehorn him into a role / system that does not get the most out of him, given that he is the most high impact attacking player we have, when utilized correctly. Played as Jose plays him, he becomes a very average, constrained CM.

It is also not too hard to fit Rashford, Martial, Sanchez and Lukaku into that kind of system as well. In fact the only one who doesnt fit is Jose.

 

Correct.

We haven't a Keano type leader since Keane left. Pogba isn't that type of player, but he's an incredibly gifted footballer who should be built around. But Mourinho is indeed old school and he may not deploy Pogba to his maximum effect.

 

There is no doubt that the team should be built around him. The move for Fred was a good one in the sense that it directly addresses the balance and support issue in our midfield, both elements that severely hampered Pogba's effectiveness. He should be a big, big help in that department and whether it's AP or Matic at the base of it, I'm confident that our midfield (and therefore Pogba) will be improved with Fred in it.
The real issue however, as it's always been the case unfortunately, is that it does not matter who we have or how they are lined up, but how Mourinho instructs them to play or gives (the offensive and creative players particularly) the freedom to express themselves. Unless those particular players, which obviously includes Pogs, are not let off the leash in some measure, nothing is going to change.
It has been intimated that Deschamps had Pogba and France "reigned in": they were disciplined, compact and efficient at the back. Yet, at the same time, the offensive and creative players were given enough rope to be at their devastating best in some specific situations ie on the counter where their power and pace could cause defenses problems. That is really the template, at a minimum, Mourinho should use for our front 5 going forward.

 

Without question, Ashur.

The difficult nut to crack is the Sanchez/Martial conundrum. The clear answer for me is to use Sanchez on the right and Martial on the left, but only if Martial is committed to performing a complete role and stops moping around when he doesn't have the ball at his feet.

Alexis looks fired up going into this season, being one of the two bright spots in pre-season play (Andreas being the other) but at this point he looks set on playing from the left side. And with that it's hard to see where Anthony can make his impact. He's clearly unhappy on the right side as what he wants to do is exactly what Sanchez wants to do. Problem is, Sanchez is a far more complete player than Martial.

Mourinho, as everyone here knows, values attacking players who can defend and defensive players who can attack.

 

The payoff to fire Mourinho, at any time over the next year, is reported to be set at £12mil...

 

Bargain

 

Already paid for by Blind

 

Mourinho (and United) must move past a difficult preseason.

www.espn.com/soccer/club/manchester-united/360/blog/post/3587399/jose-mourinho-manchester-united-must-move-past-difficult-preseason?src=com

 

Sack him = problem solved

 

[emoji23]

🗣 “Finishing 2nd in the Premier League last season was one of my biggest achievements in the game."

- José Mourinho. 👀 pic.twitter.com/e90LIO4AVK

— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) August 9, 2018

 

A not atypical post from RedIssue, posted about two hours ago. For anyone here who's on RI this comes from "Metaflake":

Edward Woodward, director of football telling one of the most successful managers in the world who he can and can't sign.

It's a mess alright lads, a big, big mess.​

I don't have the wherewithal to follow media reports on an hourly basis so maybe there's good cause for panic right now. But it seems to me that performances on the pitch do the talking and we drop say 4 of the first 9 points available to us I'll concede we're in serious trouble. What I expect are 6 points from the first two games and then it's anyone's guess against Spurs. I expect we'll comfortable secure a top four spot, but if we land 3rd or 4th that just won't be "acceptable" and I'll join the chorus for his sacking. But until we drop stupid points on a consistent basis as we have for most of the last five seasons I won't be hitting the panic button.

 

Which 'him' do you want to sack?

 

When you read articles like this...

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/manchester-united-chiefs-tell-jose-13058635

And see how vastly far apart the manager is from the money... How can you not sack the manager?

 

Are the United board really that dim? If there's anything we know about Mourinho, it's that he favors older, mature players. And he's likely one of the most youth-unfriendly managers in football. WTF was the point of bringing in Mourinho when this was already known in the first place? W

 

What's funny is that if you go back in this thread, we all predicted that this would happen. We knew what Jose was. LvG stabilized the ship and Jose was brought in to bring back the aura to the club, attract top players, and win titles even if it might be ugly. Initially he did all of these things (even if the titles were unimportant) but we all knew eventually he'd blow things up. We just hoped we were in a good place when he did implode and that he didn't drive out too many of our top players during his exodus. Well...we're not in a good place and he is driving out our best player. Time to cut ties before he sets us back to the post-Moyes days.

 

Bring back LVG.

 

Nothing has changed in United's squad - Mourinho

www.skysports.com/football/news/11667/11468376/jose-mourinho-says-nothing-has-changed-in-man-utds-squad

 

Yeah that's the problem [emoji50]

 

Mourinho is looking for a strong start from United.

www.skysports.com/football/news/11667/11468989/jose-mourinho-desperate-for-strong-manchester-united-start

 

Jose post game today.

https://www.manutd.com/en/news/deta...to-man-united-2-leicester-1-on-10-august-2018

Jesus ********ing Christ. He's not holding back.

 

Boom called it. I said he would take his first public shot at Woody in the post game presser. He just can't help himself.