Does he? Don't get me wrong - he certainly is underperforming with the players he has at his disposal, and does himself zero favours by singling his own players out in the press, but would they be able to compete with Liverpool or City even if these players were playing to the best of their ability? Let's go through their first-team squad objectively. De Gea is a world-class goalkeeper. Valencia is inconsistent. Dalot is a kid. Young is a decent back-up, but is relied on far too often in the first 11. Smalling isn't good enough for them. Rojo, Jones and Bailly always appear to be injured, but all of them don't seem to be particularly adored by United fans. Shaw is starting to come good after an injury-plagued couple of years. Lindelof is ok, but doesn't appear to have fulfilled the potential people thought he had at Benfica. Fred hasn't been that impressive, but he didn't look all that impressive at Shakhtar, either. I think Mourinho even alluded to Fred not being a player that was one of his first choice options. Fellaini is useless as a starter, albeit he's a good impact sub if you need a goal. He is relied on too much, though. Mata is class. Matic isn't mobile or energetic enough for a two-man midfield pivot. Pogba has blown hot and cold, but don't think Mourinho has developed him properly. Lingard is average, who had a purple patch last season. Seems to have reverted to type this season. Herrera is technically gifted, but again, struggles for consistency. Alexis Sanchez is half the player he was at Arsenal, but you could see signs he was on his way downhill in his last few months at Arsenal. Doesn't have that explosiveness or quality in the final third that he used to have. Lukaku is a good striker, who is lacking in confidence right now. But again, question marks have always been around whether he's a top level striker. Rashford is also lacking in confidence, but is a good young player. Martial is quality, but has been inconsistent since Mourinho's arrival. They have a top goalkeeper, a slightly above average defence, an imbalanced midfield and a wealth of attacking options. Generally, I agree that he has mismanaged his players and alienated them. You can certainly argue that Mourinho's poor man management skills have contributed to their indifferent displays. But some of them, who were there previously, weren't putting in stellar performances under van Gaal either. At what point do you say 'the players aren't that good' instead of always looking at the manager(s)? He's spent almost £400m since 2016, so he has to bear the brunt of the criticism he's getting, despite his protestations to the contrary. But relative to the other squads, I personally don't think these players are good enough to win major honours. They should be doing better than they currently are though.
They might want to splash a bit of cash on a good manager, as they're 10th from 18 teams after 24 out of 34 matches. They're a lot closer to relegation than doing anything meaningful. The top sides are mainly homegrown players with a smattering of 2nd rate, unknown Brazilians.
It says a lot the league's top scorer is Jo, who is mainly known for Mark Hughes spending £19m for him because Man City had just won the EuroMillions so he didn't think it was worth negotiating for a player who was prolific in the Russian Premier League
United XI vs Southampton: De Gea, Young, Jones, McTominay, Shaw, Pogba, Matic, Herrera, Fellaini, Rashford, Lukaku. Subs: Mata, Martial, Lingard, Rojo, Fred, Dalot, Romero That is an atrocious starting XI. Southampton have been dreadful under Hughes though, which is the only reason I think United will win, but if they fielded a team like that against most semi-competent sides, I am sure that they'd falter more often than not. You put your best creative player and top goalscorer on the bench, whilst Young, who has been struggling for a while, is starting ahead of Dalot, who has looked like a proper right-back whenever he's played. Genuinely bizarre.
It isn't the individual players, it's the fact that there is no consistency or continuity in selection, no game plan, no energy or commitment and no understanding. This means the team is always less than the sum of its parts. The main issue leaping from that selection is the lack of a proper back four. Only one centre back who is error prone and rarely selected, a young midfielder out of position and a winger playing full back again, but on the opposite side to where he has been regularly picked (despite the right side theoretically being the best side for a right footed player). That back four has been thrown together and is highly unlikely to ever be selected together again. What is the thinking behind it? After all, the manager is a serial winner.
It's not Jose's fault...if he was only able to buy Kane,Alli, Eriksen and Son, this wouldn't be happening to him. It's a shame.
It's reaching the point where it's worth asking if Steptonho is picking these lineups for the sole purpose of saying "See? I need new signings in January" - even though that just so happens to be wilful sabotage, which is a damn good reason to sack the deranged egotist
Southampton 2-0 up against United in 20 minutes! Jeez, wasn't expecting that. Although I did say their starting XI was poor. Southampton have struggled for goals all season, I bet they can't believe their luck right now.
Luckily Matth doesn’t care anymore so I’m sure they’ll be no special YouTube rant after the match if it stays like this
Maybe I'm reading your post wrong, as you ended it by saying Mourinho's a 'serial winner', but I hope you are not absolving the manager of responsibility for the mess you are in right now. You're currently 8th in the league, with a negative goal difference, you're already out of a domestic cup competition and, though stranger things have happened, it seems impossible to think you will progress far in the Champions League. This is Mourinho's third season. He's spent almost £400m. Yeah you can blame Ed Woodward or the Glazers as much as you like, and of course they deserve some blame. But when you are playing negative, passive football with talents like Mata, Pogba, Martial, Lukaku, Rashford and pushing young prospects like Dalot and Pereira to the fringes, having already spent over a third of a billion pounds, at what point do you say the manager is playing a massive part in this demise? Negative football can be tolerated to a degree by football fans if your team is getting results. Mourinho isn't. You need a forward-thinking, progressive manager with an attacking philosophy at his core. Mourinho isn't that man. The pro-Mourinho brigade can make as many excuses for him as they want, but we ALL know how this ends for him.
I'm saying it is the fault of the manager more than the players. There are plenty of talented individuals, although there is a lack of top class defenders and no playmaker. Any decent manager should be able to make these players competitive as a team. Maybe not good enough to win the PL and CL, but certainly top four standard.
I'm not even surprised that United have brought it back, as they've done it several times this season. But it must be concerning that they have to go a goal or two behind for them to click into gear going forward. They won't keep getting away with shoddy starts.
This is like being a passenger in a car with a drunk driver. You know it's wrong, it's probably going to end badly, but it grabs your attention and gets your heart racing
You can't knock a point at St. Mary's. There will be some teams who go there and get nothing. Southampton probably.
