Posts Tagged ‘Jose Mourinho’

Mourinho And Guardiola Will Start The New Season At United And City With Little Match Preparation

Posted: July 28, 2016 in European Football, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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This should not come as a major surprise to supporters of the two clubs. If they both stick to their original schedule Manchester United will have played five “warm-up” games and City three.

United will have faced Wigan Athletic, Borussia Dortmund, Galatasaray, Everton and Leicester City.

City will have played Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal.

In the past United have been known to organise another friendly prior to the start of the season, usually in the week leading up to the Community Shield. Given that their derby in China was cancelled they may still choose to fit in another game before the big kick off. It seems that United’s players have not yet reached the required level of fitness demanded by a Premier League title contender. (more…)

Jose Mourinho’s Need For A Centre Half At Manchester United Is Greater Than That Of Pep Guardiola At Manchester City

Posted: July 26, 2016 in Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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Looking at the genuine first team choices available to the two managers it is Manchester United who need the likes of Raphael Varane, John Stones or Leonardo Bonucci, more than Manchester City.

Pep can boast the services of Vincent Kompany, Eliaquim Mangala, Nicolas Otamendi and Jason Denayer, all of whom are current picks for their national squads. These, if no further signings are made, would probably be the four centre backs in the squad for next season.

Unfortunately, for City and Kompany, he is very injury prone and unless he can overcome this problem then a new signing will have to be made.

Mangala has never really found the form that convinced City to buy him and has been inconsistent to say the least. He did, however, seem to be coming into a bit of form towards the end of last season. (more…)

Mourinho And Guardiola Learn Nothing From Pointless China Trip

Posted: July 25, 2016 in Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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(The Jose Mourinho stall at Beijing market proves popular with the locals)

Manchester United and Manchester City flew to China. The idea being that they could take part in the International Champions Cup which would include two games each, one against each other and the remaining one against Borussia Dortmund.

In an eventful week for United they started by being hammered 4-1 by Dortmund before then taking two planes to fly to Beijing, one of which had to make an emergency landing in Tianjin due to bad weather. Quite why the weather was perfectly OK for the other plane to fly the remaining 66 miles or so to Beijing is anybody’s guess, but there you have it.

Next up in the comedy of errors was a Jose Mourinho press conference being held in the open air. This was because the room to be used was deemed as too hot. Obviously, in a massive modern stadium, air conditioning had not been considered necessary. What was ironic was that Pep Guardiola had given his press conference in the same room earlier in the day although, in fairness, he did sweat a lot. (more…)

Wayne Rooney Should Not Be Selected As A Player For Manchester United By Jose Mourinho, Never Mind As Captain!

Posted: July 24, 2016 in Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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What does Wayne Rooney have on the plus side of his account with United?

He is the clubs leading all-time goalscorer. He is the captain of United as well as of England, although the impression is that both appointments were made due to a massive shortage of suitable candidates. He has been a decent player for a few seasons whilst never reaching the heights thought possible when he first appeared for Everton. That’s about it!

Unless I am missing something glaringly obvious then Rooney hasn’t actually contributed massively to United’s success over the years. That isn’t to say that he hasn’t contributed at all, he has, just not to the extent that some people, himself included, would have us believe. (more…)

Six Players Jose Mourinho Needs To Offload From Manchester United This Transfer Window

Posted: July 22, 2016 in Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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Antonio Valencia:

He has never regained full confidence since breaking his leg against Rangers a few years ago. At one stage he was a marauding winger who was never afraid to take defenders on and beat them, usually with pace rather than trickery. Since recovering from his injury he has always either passed the ball or tried a cross instead of attempting to beat the full back. His crosses invariably hit the defender he doesn’t try to beat and either go out for a corner or possession is lost.

Sir Alex Ferguson was the first to think he may be a decent wingback. Louis van Gaal also played him in that position and Jose Mourinho as well. Well, not wishing to try and advise these three luminaries, but Valencia IS NOT a wingback. He CANNOT defend. He is regularly playing the opposition onside, and is a complete liability in his own area. (more…)

Manchester United Or City? Jose Mourinho Or Pep Guardiola? Who Will Reign Supreme In Manchester?

Posted: July 21, 2016 in Arsenal, Chelsea, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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Next season there will be almost as much interest in who wins the battle of Manchester as there will be in who eventually wins the Premier League. Mainly in Manchester of course, but the battle will still be watched with a certain amount of interest from all places outside of the “M” postal code area.

It is unfortunate that the teams cannot be compared in the Champion’s League due to the shortcomings of each of the previous managers, both of whom underachieved in their final season.

Louis van Gaal underachieved by so much that United haven’t even qualified for the tournament and City will have to play a pre-qualifier, (which they should win), having finished in a lowly fourth position last time out. (more…)

China Takes Away Jose Mourinho And Pep Guardiola As Manchester United And City Chase The Money, (As Usual)

Posted: July 20, 2016 in Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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The first Manchester derby since last season will be played in China. There will probably be some Mancunians in attendance but how many is anybody’s guess. The fact that the match is totally meaningless makes it a lot easier to bear for fans of the clubs who are from Manchester and can’t quite come to terms with their local club playing a derby in China!

As usual, it is all about money. The clubs may spout on as much as they wish about how they are rewarding their Asian fans with a visit and how pleased they are to be there but, given the choice, I am pretty sure that both managers would rather have stayed a lot closer to home.

Neither club would be anywhere near the area if they weren’t trying to attract an even bigger fanbase than they already have. Ed Woodward, as far as United are concerned, has signed a few sponsorship deals in the general area, (it’s the only thing at which he is any good!), so the trip will also keep these companies reasonably happy. (more…)

Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United Kids Are Alright

Posted: July 16, 2016 in Football, Manchester United, Opinion
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Well that was refreshing! Having watched every agonising minute of Manchester United under David Moyes and Louis van Gaal, I am already far more optimistic with Mourinho in charge than I ever was with either of the other two.

There were good moments from the Moyes side and the same goes for the van Gaal side. The problem was that they were so few and far between that their dismissals were met with the same kind of celebrations that are usually reserved for winning a trophy.

Mourinho’s first game in charge, the friendly against Wigan, saw most of the kids given some game time. Fosu-Mensah started, as did James Wilson. Luke Shaw made a welcome return after injury and looked to link up again with Depay on the left. Depay still looks short on confidence and this is the reason that the link-up didn’t work as well as it might have done. (more…)

Zlatan Given Extra Time Off By Manchester United Boss Jose Mourinho

Posted: July 14, 2016 in Football, Manchester United, Opinion
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(Zlatan has to force his eyes open to try and overcome extreme tiredness brought on by playing a game of football)

So Zlatan needs an extended rest because of his exertions in the Euros! UEFA rules state that players appearing in the competition must be given three weeks break at the end of it. This means that Ibrahimovic would be able to go to China with the rest of the team but, as the poor soul doesn’t have the strength to pull his suitcase, he is being given extra hols by his new boss.

As well as displaying a laudable level of compassion and sympathy it also gives us an insight into how well Jose Mourinho looks after the elder citizens of the team.

The United manager, having watched all the games in France, will have noticed that Ibrahimovic was picked to play in all three of Sweden’s games, meaning that he spent a total of 270 minutes actually on a football pitch during a competitive game. (more…)

How Jose Mourinho Finally Made It To Manchester United

Posted: July 13, 2016 in Chelsea, Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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It seems to have been a relatively straightforward appointment. Jose Mourinho became Manchester United manager after a short break during which Ed Woodward dithered, as usual, over what to do about Louis “the loser” van Gaal.

Finally, Woodward’s decision was made for him as United, for the second time in three years, finished outside of the Champion’s League places. Winning the FA Cup was never going to be enough to save the Dutchman, who had produced boringly slow football for the majority of his time at Old Trafford. (more…)

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