United gloss over poor season with Europa League success

Jose Mourinho’s men defeat Ajax to lift Europa League trophy and seal Champions League football next season.

Henrikh Mkitaryan spent the first few months of his Manchester United career being regarded as something of a flop as Jose Mourinho kept him out of the first team until deep into the season, for reasons that still remain hazy. So there was something gratifying in the way the classy Armenian applied the final, polished touch to United’s indifferent season, a typically improvised and characteristically clinical finish.

A Europa League final victory over a significantly inferior Ajax side is one of massive proportions for United in football terms, given the fact they had hinged their whole season, as well as much of next season, on winning this solitary game.

Yet football had paled into insignificance in the run up to the final following events in the Manchester Arena on Monday night, where a suicide bomber murdered twenty-two people, including children, following an Ariana Grande concert.

Taking place in the aftermath of such an unfathomable tragedy, the Europa League Final in truth acted as a reminder of the frivolousness and unimportance of the make believe world of football.

Football, at its best, has always been a joyous, ridiculous and theatrical escape from the every day. But there are times when even it cannot exist in a separate sphere. In a statement which had replaced his cancelled press conference, Jose Mourinho stated that the events of Monday evening meant his squad were travelling to the final without the ‘happiness that we always have before a big game’. Ajax manager Peter Bosz echoed Mourinho’s sentiment when he said that the final had ‘lost its glow.’

After a somber build up and a minutes silence penetrated by few unfortunate and moronic yelps, United took a deserved lead inside the opening seventeen minutes, albeit with sizable portion of luck involved.

Ajax were sloppy with a throw deep inside their own half , cheaply surrendering possession to United who swiftly worked the ball to Pogba in space on the edge of the Ajax eighteen yard box. His tame looking shot took a considerable deflection and looped over the helpless Andre Onana, and into the Ajax net.

United had started the game brightly. Pogba and Ander Herrara were both triggering Marcus Rashford’s bursts beyond the Ajax back four at every possible opportunity while Maroune Fellani was dominating the aerial battle against considerably meeker opposition. Yet it will come as no surprise to anyone who has watched United this season to learn that after taking the lead they soon ceded their advantage, dropping deep, allowing Ajax to play their way back into the game. Soaking up Ajax’s pressure, United now attempted to release Rashford, or find Fellaini’s head, from even deeper positions than they had been, leading to a disconnect in their midfield which has been common for much of the season.

Ajax were not equipped to punish their vastly superior opponents however. United’s defence, and midfield, snuffed out any semblance of opportunity and Bosz’s team lacked the guile and imagination to carve United open with any meaningful moves.

When Chris Smalling won a header inside Ajax’s area within minutes of the restart, Mkhitaryan reacted quickest, his clever and skillful finishing put the game out of Ajax’s reach. The half that followed became a drab and lengthy wait for the trophy presentation, as Ajax huffed and puffed but obviously lacked the quality to break though a resolute United defence.

Mourinho will have us believe this victory completes a treble of sorts for United, following their EFL Cup win in February and, admittedly this is pushing it, the capture of the Community Shield way back in August.

Indeed during the post match celebrations the Portuguese manager could be seen cajoling his players to stick three fingers in the air, just to reiterate the point.

Mourinho will argue that Champions League qualification, coupled with two trophies, qualifies his debut season in Manchester as a success. On the face of it, it’s hard to argue with this conclusion.

Yet in reality, his United side have been lacklustre for large parts of the season, recoiling from any meaningful top four challenge in favour of qualifying for Europe’s premier competition through the proverbial back door.

Based on this showing from Ajax, it was an approach not without wisdom, yet there was still something galling to see United shamelessly down tools in the league in April, with a top four place still on offer.

The priority for any club, especially Manchester United, is the league. Over the last three years United have finished progressively worse off in the league, fourth and fifth under Van Gaal, and now sixth under Mourinho.

Another fortune will be spent this summer, and to Mourinho’s credit he has generally been an astute operator in the transfer market. His clinical transfer business last summer acting as one of the genuine positives of his reign.

It may very well be quite a different United that lines up to start the season in August, with Antoine Griezman apparently having a 6 out of 10 chance of leading their attack next season.

Whatever the comings and goings over the empty days of summer are at Old Trafford, Mourinho will know that his numerous, exhausting excuses won’t be so tolerated next year, nor will a sixth place finish.

A similar league campaign in his second season and he will probably pay with his job, and United will be one year further away from Ferguson's retirement, still lost without him.

United fans will spend the long, football-less summer hoping Mourinho offers some considerable improvement next season.