Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho suffered the heaviest home defeat of his coaching career as Tottenham Hotspur won 3-0 at Old Trafford on Monday to spiral an early-season crisis for the Red Devils.
Mourinho is at the front of the firing line with odds on him being the first Premier League manager of the season to lose his job already being slashed after two consecutive defeats.
However, the Portuguese is far from the only culprit with United’s slide on the field dating back to Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013.
Here, AFP Sports looks at three things that have gone wrong for the 20-time English champions.
1. Mourinho introduced himself to English football as “the special one” when taking charge of Chelsea for the first time 14 years ago.
He backed up that bravado by delivering back-to-back Premier League titles. Mourinho’s aura and tactical discipline also inspired a title win in his second spell at Stamford Bridge, a treble at Inter Milan and broke Barcelona’s La Liga hegemony under Pep Guardiola for Real Madrid.
Yet his third season’s second time round at Chelsea and Madrid ended acrimoniously and a third campaign at United already looks like heading the same way.
In contrast to the exciting brand of football offered by Manchester City, Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea under Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp, Mauricio Pochettino and Maurizio Sarri, Mourinho’s conservative tactics seem outdated and at odds with United’s tradition under Ferguson.
Moreover, whereas Mourinho used to staunchly defend his players, at United he has routinely criticised his squad in public.
Spurs fans goaded Mourinho with cries of “You’re not special anymore” and his rant at the media as he stormed out of his post-match press conference demanding respect for his record of winning three Premier League titles did little to quell the feeling he is living off past glories.
Source: NST
