For a manager who lives by the concept of risk being an anathema, Jose Mourinho is playing a dangerous game at Manchester United.
Not on the field, where his tactical plans for the Red Devils remain very much in the embryonic stage (to put it mildly) but in the dressing room as Luke Shaw on Sunday became the sixth United player to be publicly criticised this season.
Mourinho highlighted Shaw’s defensive inefficiencies during the build-up for Watford’s second goal scored by Camilo Zuniga, claiming the full-back didn’t press Nordin Amrabat sufficiently enough, “our left-back was 25 metres from him”
It comes after Daley Blind, Eric Bailly, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Jesse Lingard were verbally reprimanded in the wake of the derby defeat to Manchester City and Bastian Schweinsteiger became persona non grata before even kicking a ball at Carrington.
And while his frustration is understandable, Shaw wasn’t the only one responsible. Mourinho neglected to highlight Wayne Rooney failing to offer his full-back any support as Amrabat cut inside, more concerned with the apparent attacking threat of Craig Cathcart; nor did he draw attention to Zuniga running past Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Marcus Rashford before waltzing into a gaping hole on the edge of the box to score; or even Paul Pogba’s poor positioning which allowed Roberto Pereyra to run behind the defensive line and set up the Colombian.
The short-sightedness of his criticism could, and more likely already has, created a ripple eff-ect; Shaw’s team-mates must be shocked (or relieved) he was the one singled out while at the same time surprised those equally as culpable have been ignored.
The inconsistency of it leaves players unable to process its logic; so therefore, at best, confusion and, at worst, resentment will breed.
This being a dressing room which harboured ill-will towards David Moyes due to his aversion to chips and didn’t like Louis van Gaal sending e-mail homework.
It’s alarming this is all happening so soon as the Portuguese’s last two jobs at Real Madrid and Chelsea were terminated in somewhat catastrophic circumstances as gradually the dressing room disintegrated around him. At Madrid, he fell foul of a toxic relationship with club figureheads Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos. At Chelsea, it was captain and icon John Terry and two-time player of the year Juan Mata in the firing line.
Lots of stick for Mourinho, but he's actually ahead of schedule. Usually takes two seasons for his teams to play this abysmally.
— Tom Williams (@tomwfootball) September 18, 2016
But this feels slightly different as these were individuals with considerable gravitas he crossed. And while he started boldly at United with his decision to marginalise Schweinsteiger, the obvious individual failings of Rooney – in particular – are being ignored.
The counter is, of course, it’s clever psychology to ensure his players understand his demands and mistakes don’t happen again.
But, then again, the erratic nature of his analysis doesn’t imply any coherent thought or strategy is being employed here.
