Manchester United are preparing for their Monday night clash against Tottenham Hotspur. The match will wear the significance of two top six clubs battling it out for important points, but also of the Red Devils’ need to improve drastically after a poor showing against Brighton. The match at the Amex has been the centre of everyone’s attention every since the match finished and on Friday Jose Mourinho had a chance to talk about it in the press conference.
Typical Jose
But Jose was Jose once again. He wanted to things the only way he knows – showing the negative attitude towards media who have been almost slaughtering him whole week since the Brighton loss. Whether or not the media attention to a single loss was too big or not, Mourinho did things his way anyway.
He appeared half hour early for his usual Friday morning press conference, meaning many journalists have missed it. The Guardian has already calculated that the conference last for 259 seconds, or four minutes and 19 seconds.
When the manager was asked about everything that has been written about him and Manchester United in the past five days, this was Jose’s response: “Don’t ask me because I don’t read. I don’t know 10% what is written, 10% of what is coming on the TV screen”, And that is it.
Asked about the match against Tottenham, Mourinho did not want to use much of his breath either. “I would like to play well and win. Not make mistakes, play well and win. That’s what we want.”
He was even more negative towards media when he was asked about the progress of Victor Lindelöf and Eric Bailly in starting XI. “I don’t comment to you on my players.”
He Does Not Want To Change
Maybe Mourinho does have a point. Maybe the media really have been going a bit too hard on him in the past five days, but looking at the circumstances, that is not a surprise. Manchester United have been stagnating for a while, not improving. We have seen how much managers can change teams quickly upon their arrival. Just look at what Marcelo Bielsa is doing at Leeds.
And Jose has been in charge for over two years now and the team did not truly improve. Yes, the performances are higher than those in his first season, but not drastically and when the team finishes sixth in the league, you expect them to improve drastically. That is what is expected of Manchester United
The Guardian’s front page for Saturday has Mourinho nicknamed “The Sullen One”. His press conference has been up to his usual standards of creating an image that the whole world is against him. That is what he likes and his performances in those press conferences did not drop over years.
However, his results did. Mourinho is now the manager that has to fight to keep himself in those highest echelons of football managers. He has won just one league title in the past six seasons, working at clubs such as Real Madrid, Manchester United and Chelsea.
Let’s see what he can bring to this club outside of the press conferences.
i think it’s interesting how the Man U press attacks Mourinho and ignores the elephant in the room. Man U.’s problem, clearly and simply is Woodward. He does not support the manager he hired and makes no effort to upgrade his team. Mourinho made a mistake going to work for Woodward, but it’s highly unlikely that anyone else is going to do that. Woodward was a solid CFO but is totally incompetent as a CEO. No improvement on the field while Woodward is in charge.