Jose Mourinho DOES believe he’s doing everything he can at Manchester United — but it’s not working
Mourinho came to this giant of a club to make his own history — but not the sort that could go into the record books today
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JOSE MOURINHO was clearly insulted by the question.
He was asked if he could assure Manchester United fans he was doing everything he could to turn the season around.
Mourinho just ignored it and stared straight ahead from his seat in the Jimmy Murphy building at their Carrington Training Ground.
Because Mourinho DOES believe he is doing everything he can.
The problem is that right now it is just not working.
Mourinho came to this giant of a club to make his own history — but not the sort that could go into the record books today.
United have failed to win their last four games at home and their last four home and away.
The last time the club went five games without a win at Old Trafford was in the 1989-90 season.
They have only failed to win five in a row home and away once since 1999 — and that was under Louis van Gaal, who went eight.
That is where Mourinho is at with the club right now. They stand closer to Huddersfield and Cardiff in the league than they do to Liverpool and Manchester City.
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He is currently clutching at straws, turning the statistics round and not even counting their exit to Derby in the League Cup on penalties as a defeat.
He said: “Only one defeat at home all season, only one defeat in the last seven matches — but not victories at home in the past three matches.
“Three draws. Not the feeling of the defeat but not the happiness of the victory so it is important for us to try and win this match.”
He also claims the league table lies at this stage of the season.
Mourinho said: “I know we are in the beginning of October and we look to tables all around Europe — and in many of the leagues the tables in September and October don’t reflect what is going to happen a few months later or even at the end of the season.
“But we are in a position that we can do much better and to do that we need to win these three points.”
To win those three points Mourinho believes his team just need to show the same commitment they did against Valencia and have a bit more luck.
He said: “If the effort, the commitment is there that the team showed against a difficult opponent like Valencia, if we do that against Newcastle and we are probably a bit luckier, we win the match.”
He must have been watching a different game to the one many fans saw on Tuesday night.
For while the performance was a step up from the miserable defeat away to West Ham, it was still nowhere near what this United team should be producing and, indeed, were producing last season.
So who is to blame for that?
“The same people that were to blame for the fantastic season of last season,” said Mourinho.
So he accepts United are clearly performing way below their potential although he refused to say why.
He said: “This team can do much better than what it is doing. The team will do much better than what it is doing.
“If you want me to repeat, I repeat. I said last season was a fantastic season for us and in pre-season I also said that this season was going to be very difficult.”
He is desperately trying to make a point with this harking back to last season, when they finished runners-up and reached the FA Cup final, as he does so often.
You often have to read between the lines with Mourinho.
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What he appears to be saying is that it was a remarkable achievement to do what he did with the squad he had last time and that it needed major strengthening to do something similar again.
Fred and Diogo Dalot clearly were not enough, in his eyes, to keep pace.
Mourinho said: “Success has a direct relation with your own potential and with the potential of your opponents.
“The last season was phenomenal exactly because of these two factors. I think opponents with much more potential than us finished behind us.
“That is the reason why it was a phenomenal season.
“With all the respect, and I hope they don’t interpret me in a negative way, if we are playing in a league like the Swiss league and we don’t win that league, anything else apart from winning that league would be an awful season.
“With the potential of our direct opposition, last season to finish second was a fantastic season for us.”
Not so this season. While others like Liverpool have taken a step forward, United are careering backwards.
And if Mourinho cannot reverse that trend, he will be gone.