WHY SAY ANYTHING?

(José Mourinho has a few things to think about before Sunday’s game with Swansea)

Manchester United have gone from being challengers to strugglers in a few short weeks.

Whether it is more surprising that they actually played well at the start of the season, or that they returned to their abject selves after a very short while is debatable.

What seems to have been missed by Moyes, van Gaal and now Mourinho, is that the United players appear to find it virtually impossible to pass the ball to each other. The amount of times a pass goes straight to an opposition player is now too numerous to be put down to bad luck or just erratic passing.

It isn’t as though it is just a misplaced pass or a timely interception, it is usually just hit straight to the opposing team. Even in a situation where there are three United players the ball will be passed to the one member of the other side wherever he may be stood. It is almost as though the training is all about how to give the ball away as quickly as possible.

Another failing is the inability to score goals. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is too old and is proving, after a reasonable start, that he isn’t the answer to that particular problem. Wayne Rooney is past it and, although he scored a great goal in this game, it looked more a shot borne of frustration at the team’s performance rather than the outcome of a flowing move from the attacking side.

Two left backs playing in the centre of defence does not help. Daley Blind has been fine in this position when partnered with Eric Bailly and the problems seemed to start when Smalling was reintroduced and Rojo came into the team. Neither are good enough for this team and every effort should be made to sell them both in the upcoming transfer window.

Schneiderlin, Darmian, Rooney, Fellaini, Valencia, Jones and Lingard can join the two previously mentioned in leaving the club as soon as possible. None of these players would get into any of the current top four or five teams. In fact they would be fortunate to be included on the bench.

It seems to be pretty evident that Jose Mourinho is aware of the shortcomings of this team and it is also fairly apparent that he didn’t expect his four summer signings to bring about any seismic change in the fortunes of the club. There is major surgery required not just a couple of stitches.

Hopefully there will be no knee-jerk reaction to the current bad spell. It was fine to sack Moyes, who was never good enough for United and is, in fact, proving that he is also not good enough for Sunderland, and to sack van Gaal who was too old and stuck in his ways to bring any sort of longevity to the team. But to sack Mourinho before he has been given at least two years and four transfer windows would be a mistake.

If, after that period of time, the team doesn’t have some success under it’s belt and he hasn’t shown any signs of improvement, then he. an be moved on. At present he is in the one job he wanted above all others and, if he wants to keep it, (which he surely does), then he will do everything in his power to do so. That is the good news for United fans.

Any comparisons between the present Mourinho and the one who left Chelsea in such a mess are untrustworthy. At Chelsea he had good players who weren’t playing for him. He had players who, the season before, had won the Premier League.

At United he has average and bad players who ARE trying to play for him, it’s just that they aren’t good enough. He has players who will probably never win the Premier League and these are the ones he needs to root out.

Over the years United have had some great managers, two stand-out ones in particular. If Mourinho is to become the third of these greats then he needs the chance to build the team as Sir Alex Ferguson did and as Sir Matt Busby did before him. He may achieve it, he may not, but the least he deserves is to be given the chance.