Listen, this is what Jose Mourinho does.
He builds very, very good teams, he makes them tighter and tighter defensively and he sends them out safe in the knowledge that they should easily – logically at least – win 30 of their games.
The other eight? He just doesn’t want to lose them.
When was the last time Mourinho ever set a team up to win a big game?
Even with two of the biggest clubs in world football, Manchester United and Real Madrid – two clubs with the proudest of histories and traditions and a near arrogance when it comes to dominating their opponents – the Portuguese boss somehow managed to turn them into underdogs playing on the back foot, hoping on the off chance that they might nick anything.
On Saturday afternoon, Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth pushed themselves into the top half of the Premier League table and relegated Sunderland in the process with a 1-0 win at the Stadium of Light.
Throughout that game, their Republic of Ireland central midfielder completely controlled proceedings and he racked up the sort of statistics that even Xavi in his heyday would’ve been proud of.
Arter v Sunerland
Passes completed: 89
Pass accuracy: 88.8%
Through balls: 10
Long balls: 12
Dribbles: 2
It showed what Arter and Bournemouth are about. The Irish international topped the charts for passing stats ahead of everyone else in the league this weekend – James Milner came closest with 79 with Manchester City’s Fernandinho just behind him.
Then, United went out at home to Swansea with a place in the top four in their own control and they were outplayed – no two ways about it. They were outplayed by Paul Clement’s Swansea.
Ander Herrera and Michael Carrick were selected in the middle – two fantastic footballers, one who’s now a stalwart of the club and another who’d be in with a shout of player of the season if the team weren’t performing with such underwhelming lack of conviction. But they weren’t allowed to just go out and dominate Swansea.
- Herrera made 67 passes.
- Carrick made 55 passes.
Tom Carroll saw more action than Carrick did because Jose Mourinho didn’t trust his players to simply better the opposition at football. He couldn’t rest easy in the knowledge that Herrera and Carrick are far superior to Carroll and Leon Britton so, instead, he changed his tactics in the first half to try and mirror what Swansea were doing.
He couldn’t just tell Anthony Martial to light the place up again because, instead, he wanted him back at full back helping to double up on Jordan bloody Ayew.
United are now micro-managed to levels the club has never seen before. The difference on Sunday between them and 18th placed Swansea is that the away side actually had a plan as to what to do with the ball when they had it. Any plan Mourinho had was simply – and is always simply – to do with what happens when they don’t have the ball.
Then it’s just about holding their positions when they’re in possession and that’s where direct football comes in. And not even direct football with a plan, just one that maintains a shape.
That result – no, that performance – against Swansea completely undermined any justification Jose Mourinho might’ve had for playing such percentage football against Chelsea. It was like the team had been drilled so much into shutting down Hazard and Pedro that everything else to do with this game became irrelevant – stuff you particularly need at home to relegation strugglers. Stuff like playing football.
Look at the Spurs side at the minute that’s absolutely thriving. They don’t have a better team than United. They don’t.
They’ve an excellent back five but De Gea is better than Lloris, Valencia is better than Walker and Eric Bailly is better than any of their centre halves. Wanyama and Dier or Dembele are good, solid players but anyone in their right minds would take Herrera and Pogba over them in a heartbeat.
Is Christian Eriksen any better than Juan Mata? Would Mkhitaryan not blow most of them out of the water? Then you go on into United’s depth and there’s just no comparison.
But it doesn’t actually matter because those players aren’t being allowed to play. Spurs right now are showing the value of what a good manager can actually achieve. United – with arguably the best squad in the league – are showing what an outdated manager does to your team.
Harry Arter alone is doing that too.
Mourinho would have a stroke if he thought one of his deep-lying midfielders was picking up the ball 105 times in a game.
He’ll win more trophies at United, because it’s going to be a one dull ride for United fans with unnecessary spills along the way. And it’s not going to last that long either. Once again, he’s shown no signs of changing.
