Manchester
United manager Jose Mourinho reportedly feels his predecessor, Louis
van Gaal, must share some of the blame for the team’s recent slump and is
“increasingly exasperated” at his players’ inability to transition from the
Dutchman’s methods.
According to David Anderson of the Daily Mirror, the
former Chelsea
boss “has told friends he feels the players are still hindered by the rigid
style of play” that was used at Old Trafford by Van Gaal. “He believes he is
having to retrain the players to think for themselves after two years of being
stifled by the Dutchman's mental-straitjacket approach.”
Chris Wheeler of the Daily Mail has
reported the Portuguese is flustered, as he seeks to instil positive habits in
his squad. “Mourinho is becoming increasingly exasperated with his players’
failure to take his ideas on board and abandon [Van Gaal’s] methods,” his piece
read.
Indeed, the same source has
suggested Mourinho’s decision to publicly criticise the squad has not been met
with a positive reaction. “He has been far more outspoken inside the dressing
room,” added Wheeler.
These issues have emerged after
United suffered three losses in a row, with the 3-1 defeat to Watford
on Sunday the team’s worst performance of the entire campaign. The Red Devils
face Northampton Town in the EFL Cup on Wednesday,
hoping to put an end to this sequence of results.
Paul Hayward of the Daily
Telegraph feels as though the current United squad are paying the price for
recent years of mediocrity:
Tactically there seem to be some
teething problems, too. According to Wheeler, Ander Herrera is a player who’s
being advised to play in a completely different style to the one he adopted
under Van Gaal, with a more incisive style of football being put in place.
Herrera is said to be struggling to
adapt to life under Mourinho.
“United’s full-backs are also said
to be struggling with the new approach,” added Wheeler. “Mourinho wants them to
push up and look to get the ball forward, after they were ordered to play it
sideways to their centre-backs under the Dutchman.”
Van Gaal may have steered United to
the FA Cup at the end of the previous campaign, but the careful style of
football he insisted upon left many Red Devils fans miffed. And given the
Dutchman’s reputation for discipline, it’s perhaps little surprise that many of
the principles he encouraged remain entrenched in the psyche of the squad.
Nevertheless, Mourinho has spent big
money to reshape United and expectations will naturally be high. World Soccer
Talk’s Kartik Krishnaiyer feels as though the former Old Trafford boss would
fare well with this group of players:
Of course, it’s still early days for
Mourinho, and given United haven’t challenged for a league title since Sir Alex
Ferguson left the club in 2013, it's no surprise to see them get off to an
inconsistent start. It will take a while for the longstanding squad members and
new players to fully acclimatise to life under a new regime.
However, after signing the most
expensive footballer of all time in Paul Pogba, the Bundesliga’s best player
last season in Henrikh Mkhitaryan and goalscorer Zlatan Ibrahimovic, there’s a
natural pressure for the players and Mourinho to perform—and to do so quickly.
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