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The Mourinho Thread


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Not when we're on the cusp of winning the title, no.

Call it cowardly all you want, if we missed out on the title this late on because we wanted to do passy-passy tiki taka bollocks you'd all have Mou's head.

I didn't even mention tiki taki whatsoever and you're talking about extremes again... it's as if there's only Barcelona-esque offense and Catenaccio defense lmao

What about a solid 2:0 win without allowing United to even get started (like they did yesterday, partially due to Zouma starting and confusing the hell out of everyone...)?

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Compare yesterdays game to Liverpool away last season and there are some similarities. A point for us yesterday would have been acceptable, now last season a point for Liverpool against us would have been acceptable for them. But the one thing i feel is overlooked when Gerrard slips there is not a single Liverpool defender in sight and Ba has a free run on goal. Yesterday if Matic had slipped for example our defenders would have been on any United player instantly. Is that an example of Mourinho's nous and Rodgers inexperience possibly. So it's either play conservatively and win or play gung ho and lose.

I'd say it's more to do with finishing than tactics. United did create 2 excellent chances after all through Rooney and Falcao, which followed player mistakes, but they couldn't capitalise.

A top CL side would have ruthlessly punished us in those instances though as PSG/Atleti have recently shown us, and as we regularly show against others (including versus United yesterday and as you mention versus Liverpool last season).

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Exactly, some people seem to think just because we are the better team we shouldn't bother nullifying their threats.

Nobody thinks that. Or did I miss someone's comment that we should allow our opposition's best players to shoot from their preferred spots?

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I didn't even mention tiki taki whatsoever and you're talking about extremes again... it's as if there's only Barcelona-esque offense and Catenaccio defense lmao

What about a solid 2:0 win without allowing United to even get started (like they did yesterday, partially due to Zouma starting and confusing the hell out of everyone...)?

To keep quiet Fellaini and keep us tight defensively.

Maybe you don't realise that their pacey wingers combined with our complete lack of pace in our back 4...we would have been slaughtered on the flanks and then Fellaini would have bound to have out aerialled Terry and Cahill and put one or two in the net. If we'd been at our best then I'd agree, but we're not, we have severe injuries in striking departments and our first choice winger is out. Not the time to be trying to play our best game.

What you're asking for is what we'll see against Arsenal, methinks. We'll press well, keep the ball and without Zouma in the team we will have more attacking emphasis. We're long overdue for a good win and especially if Costa is back I can see it being a high scoring game. Arsenal have always been vulnerable to be pressed and that's exactly what we'll do.

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The bar has been set low if people think the football we played in the first half of the season was otherwordly. Don't get me wrong, it was a million miles better than the dross we've been watching for over 4 months now but lets stop pretending we were battering teams left & right. Not to mention the fact it we were just as pragmatic in the big games as we are now. It's all well & nice outplaying the likes of Hull & West Brom but a truly great side would be able to impose their style on play on a game regardless of the opposition.

We could sign Messi, Ronaldo, Modric & Kroos this summer and we'll still be parking the bus in the big games.

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The bar has been set low if people think the football we played in the first half of the season was otherwordly. Don't get me wrong, it was a million miles better than the dross we've been watching for over 4 months now but lets stop pretending we were battering teams left & right. Not to mention the fact it we were just as pragmatic in the big games as we are now. It's all well & nice outplaying the likes of Hull & West Brom but a truly great side would be able to impose their style on play on a game regardless of the opposition.

We could sign Messi, Ronaldo, Modric & Kroos this summer and we'll still be parking the bus in the big games.

you are gonna get hammered even tho in many respects you are right

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To keep quiet Fellaini and keep us tight defensively.

Maybe you don't realise that their pacey wingers combined with our complete lack of pace in our back 4...we would have been slaughtered on the flanks and then Fellaini would have bound to have out aerialled Terry and Cahill and put one or two in the net. If we'd been at our best then I'd agree, but we're not, we have severe injuries in striking departments and our first choice winger is out. Not the time to be trying to play our best game.

Zouma didn't even play vs Fellaini 1-on-1 more than on maybe 2 or 3 occasions. Instead Fellaini was drawing Ivanovic in and Zouma was wandering around and giving up space in front of our box.

Instead of taking advantage of United's non-existing defensive midfield by starting Ramires (who could have helped out Ivanovic and Oscar on the right flank as well) we rather sat deep and allowed United to play their game in our half. Why was that so ultra necessary? You can't seriously tell me that we couldn't have done more harm to United if we played a more-dimensional midfield. There were dozens of occasions where one more attacking threat would have done wonders for the team on the counter. And yet we still were praying till the last second that United don't score some shit goal like they did in the first fixture...

More often than not we're giving ourselves a harder time than our opposition does.

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I'm not content with his strategy for this game either, even if this approach is understandable at this stage of the season. We somehow pulled it off but let's not forget that a lot of luck was involved. The way we handle big games hasn't changed much in the last 2-3 years and I seriously hope things will change from next season.

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Zouma didn't even play vs Fellaini 1-on-1 more than on maybe 2 or 3 occasions. Instead Fellaini was drawing Ivanovic in and Zouma was wandering around and giving up space in front of our box.

Instead of taking advantage of United's non-existing defensive midfield by starting Ramires (who could have helped out Ivanovic and Oscar on the right flank as well) we rather sat deep and allowed United to play their game in our half. Why was that so ultra necessary? You can't seriously tell me that we couldn't have done more harm to United if we played a more-dimensional midfield. There were dozens of occasions where one more attacking threat would have done wonders for the team on the counter. And yet we still were praying till the last second that United don't score some shit goal like they did in the first fixture...

More often than not we're giving ourselves a harder time than our opposition does.

You were obviously watching a different game to me. Zouma simply stopped his side of Herrera-Shaw-Fellaini from operating. See SNF analysis for more on that, Thierry Henry explained it perfectly. He also stopped Fellaini winning 90% of his aerial duels. Massive factor.

I also think you underestimate Rooney's ability in midfield too.

And are you fucking kidding me? Ramires has no ball control, no dribbling, no passing ability, no shooting ability, no strength... awful general footballing skills. He completely ruins our system of play All he has is pace. And most of all, he has no aerial ability, pitting him against Fellaini would have ruined us.

Maybe you just have to accept that Mou played the right system this time. If we had Koke or even RLC I would be agreeing with you right now, but at this point in time Zouma was the best option.

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I wish to express my rebuttal on the openions that "we are a few players short to play the style we want."

The truth is if you feel that we are a few players short to play the style we want, then it is never going to happen. This mentality exsist in every club, i have not come across any situation or club that felt they had every piece to enforce the style they want. Is there a club in the world that thinks they have every piece to enforce the style they want? The answer is absloutely no. Even the best side of the last ten years, the Barca side in their prime never had every piece or felt short on a few players. They needed to upgrade their CBs for years, and they still do. Before Suarez and Neymar, they never felt they had the optiomal forwards around Messi. Ibra, Villa, Pedro, and Sanchez were not adequate enough for one reason or another.

Saying we are a few players short in order to play a proactive football, then with this mentality we will never play that style. Even if in the summer we do sign Pogba, Reus, and Varane. Which is unlikely imo but lets assume wo do for now. What is the excuse we are going to use when one of our key players get injured or out of form? oh yeah we are going to say we don't have the players to play with our foot in front.

If we apply this mentality in real life is the equivalent of someone saying i will start start losing weight when (insert excuse) or someone saying i will stop smoking when (insert excuse). It doesn't matter the excuses are unlimited. Same unlimited excuses apply to Club football, we will never feel like we have every piece to play the style we want, we can always say we need this or that. The reasons to procrastinaite is unlimited.

I am sorry to say this, but there is no chance Mou will change or we will have some sudden change of style. If you are fine with how we are playing then i can tolerate it in fact i can respect this view. Thinking othewise is delusional at this point, because there is not a shred of evidence to suggest otherwise.

Arguably the best post of the last couple of pages and it get's completely ignored by the "Jose can do no wrong" crowd. No surprises there.

I'm glad I stayed away from this thread because it's the same old tedious argument from the pro jose crowd. "Wining is all that counts" "what if we played attacking/proactive football and lost" "we don't have the pieces in place to impose ourselves on another big team" "stop moaning" etc.

Just came in to give clockwork's post the credit it deserves.

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The naked true is, football against United was just bad and unconvincing. Tactics were bad as well, since United had enough chances to score goals. its not a ageing squad or a cheap squad. We are talking about a new team, with young players, a team that is supposed To be together for years. We are not talking about the first season of a unexperienced manager.

Lots of chances for United?

I think the tactics looked bad in the first 20 minutes, where the players didn't operate like they were told to, Zouma was walking around, our right side was open for Shaw and Young, no tracking back there, but it changed for the next 70 minuets, and since than they created only one real worrying chance, Falcao who hit the post. This tactics were built on the awareness of the players, a player losing is awareness for a second is something you think would happen if you're Mourinho, the issue is that it can't happen more than once or twice, and it didn't. Rooney chance in the start of the game, Falcao chance when Zouma loses is awareness for the only time, that's a good day for those tactics, always was like this, even with Atletico or Inter 2010 they gave that 1-2 chances when playing in a similar way. If thats the best way to approach those games in the furure? i very hope not, but it succeeded for this game. Results like PSG game happens when the players dont execute the game plan, when they lack urgency and energy "to get the job done". They just werent up for it this day, its Mourinho's fault as well.

Better counter attacks from us would have made the tactics look much better for us vs United, but we couldn't do it mainly because of Drogba who's too slow this days (the speed of running and actions).

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