The Sacking of Mourinho
The sacking of José Mourinho as Manchester United manager came rather suddenly but makes a lot of sense. There has been a growing dislike of Mourinho and his man management of the Manchester side.
After the 3–1 loss to current Premier League leaders Liverpool, Manchester United are left an astonishing 19 points off the top of the table. They sit in sixth with a goal difference of zero and a difficult Champions League first round draw against PSG.
Mourinho is being seen less as a top manager but as someone who can’t keep up in the current modern brand of football with trends of high pressing and keeping possession while building up from the back. During his two and a half seasons in Manchester we saw slow and unattractive football that bored fans.
With Mourinho, there wasn’t a large campaign by fans for his sack as there was amongst Chelsea fans for Conte, Arsenal fans with Wenger or even United fans with Louis Van Gaal.
The sacking came at the right time in my opinion. It’s off the back of two losses and two wins in their last eight. Their next five games look like a good chance to gain 9–12 points in the league and advance in the FA Cup.
If José stayed in charge and got three or four wins then it would be difficult to sack him in that sort of form. Meaning he would end up staying longer and into the January transfer window.
Sacking him when they did allows Ole Gunnar Solskjær to avoid two difficult matches against Valencia and Liverpool. And also be able to gain momentum and favour from United fans with a successful start against some easier teams. I would worry about Solskjær doing well in these starting matches, and then being given the permanent job based off some good early form and United thinking they’ve found the solution and in reality not lasting long past the end of this season.
The appointment of Ole Gunnar Solskjær until the end of the season is good as it allows them time to find the right manager, whether that’s Pochettino, Zidane, Jardim, etc. The new manager can join at the end of the season and work with the newly appointed Director of Football to build a squad and sell United’s dead wood to build a balanced and strong squad.
However, not all Manchester United fans are as keen on the interim managerial appointment. An ex-player who relegated Cardiff and is managing in Norway at the moment. It can be seen as rather uninspiring and rivals fans are giving United fans a lot of abuse. However, it is just temporary and Ole Gunnar Solskjær has been successful in Norway and played good football.
Bringing in a Director of Football, such as Paul Mitchell who has been successful as the Head of Recruitment for Southampton, Tottenham and RB Leipzig, is important. It allows for better decision making within the club and allows for better signings and younger and possibly hidden gems that Manchester United have lacked. They are one of the only Premier League clubs not currently using one.
I’m excited to see who they appoint in both the role of DoF and Head Coach and see how the club progresses. Hopefully they can utilise some of their talents such as Pogba, Shaw, Martial, Rashford and Dalot.
