WHY SAY ANYTHING?

Having sat through Manchester City’s 6-1 demolition of Huddersfield Town, a team who managed to stop them scoring at The Etihad in last season’s record-breaking campaign, the early conclusion is that City are even better this year! So far anyway.

So it was with some trepidation that we watched Manchester United away at Brighton. This was a game they lost last season without appearing to even turn up.

They haven’t changed and managed to lose again without appearing to turn up.

So the whingeing and whining about new signings, the pre-season tour and the World Cup have had no effect whatsoever and this team is as bad, if not worse, than last term.

Where does the fault lie? Granted, United only signed one big-name player in the transfer window, which was Fred and they could have done with one or two more.

The same could be said about City. They only signed Riyad Mahrez but also wanted a holding midfielder, which they didn’t get.

They had very, very similar pre-seasons in organisation if not results and they had similar numbers of players away at the World Cup.

There is a positivity around The Etihad which has been missing from Old Trafford since the two-trophy season a couple of years ago. So, as we said, where does the blame lie?

The buck nearly always stops with the manager and probably has to in this case as well. There are plenty of Manchester United “supporters” who want the Glazers out and Woodward fired and, whilst we agree with both and think that the club would probably thrive under different ownership, we have to accept that the current owners have spent millions to “improve” the team.

If the team hasn’t improved they can hardly be held responsible for that.

Likewise Ed Woodward has recruited the wrong managers, wasted money on average players and bought the wrong players at times but most of those purchases will have been identified by the manager as players he wanted at the time. As far as we are aware Woodward does not buy a player to surprise his manager on his birthday!

It is fair to say that David Moyes was never the popular choice among the fans to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson and many thousands were very happy when he was replaced by Louis van Gaal. This was a short-lived appreciation as the Dutchman played boring football and the fans then wanted him out.

José Mourinho was next and immediately started to deliver and it appeared that Woodward had finally got it right. But has he?

Yet again, after only two games of the new season, United “supporters” want Mourinho out. There are still many who also want Woodward and the Glazers out but that isn’t going to happen so let’s be realistic.

Is the current “crisis” Mourinho’s fault or does the blame lie elsewhere?

Mourinho, according to daily disgrace The Sun, has spent more than £300 million in his relatively short time at the club and was disappointed he couldn’t bring in a centre back during the last transfer window. Well, José it may surprise you but even Ed Woodward, who has made some astonishingly bad decisions in his time, was not going to pander to this whim given that you had already spent nearly £60 million buying two new centre backs to add to the three established internationals already at the club.

The fall-outs with Anthony Martial and Paul Pogba are all about Mourinho’s lack of man-management ability. The two players concerned should have been out of the door or happily integrated back into the squad. There should be no lingering ill-feeling which can spread to other players in the group and create even more problems down the line.

In conclusion, José Mourinho has a very big squad of players. He has enough players with enough talent to finish second or third this season. He doesn’t have enough to win the title.

That is his own fault. He is now in his third year at the club and, if he hasn’t identified what he needs, such as replacing his two ancient wingers who are currently playing at full-back, then it is his fault if he doesn’t challenge for the title.

Yes, we can all argue that Woodward is to blame for employing Mourinho but, at the time, it appeared to be the right choice. A serial winner who continued his serial winning in his first year at United. To blame Woodward on this one, particularly now, is a little unfair.

So the buck stops with José. Proof of that is the recent “vote of confidence” he has been given by the board, as reported in The Guardian. They only ever feel the need to back the manager when they think he is in the wrong!

What will Mourinho do about it, (apart from not even accept that HE IS part of the problem which is, in itself, a problem)?

We shall see so watch this space.