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José Mourinho’s coaching style leaves him exiled from the Theater of Dreams

José Mourinho December 18, 2018
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After Sunday’s defeat at Liverpool left the club 19 points off the top of the Premier League table and 11 points adrift of the top four, Manchester United have sacked the head manager, José Mourinho.

While Mourinho will be quick to blame everyone but himself, citing injuries that have plagued the team’s defense, for someone who is known as the managerial mastermind for “parking the bus,” Mourinho cannot deflect his responsibility for the club’s disappointing run during his two and half year reign as manager.

Though the manager has led the Red Devils to League Cup and Europa League titles, these achievements are meager for the historic club that have won 13 Premier League titles, 11 FA Cups and have been three-time champions of Europe.

Frustrated by the Portuguese manager’s aversion to adhering to the club’s traditional attacking principles, the patience of United’s board and fans have repeatedly been tested during Mourinho’s spell at Old Trafford.

Mourinho has specifically garnering resentment from the club’s fans who abhor the managers’ negative style of football especially since United’s first team is encumbered with attacking options.

Plus, United have given Mourinho plenty of transfer money to compete against the likes rivals Manchester City, Liverpool, and Chelsea at the top of the league. In fact, Mourinho’s transfer choices have rendered the club to spend of around £400m on 11 players.

Most notably, United spent £75 million (95 million US dollars) in 2017 to acquire the talent of Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku. The previous year, the club spent a world record fee of £89 million (113 million US dollars) for French superstar midfielder, Paul Pogba, who has been a vocal critic of the Portuguese manager.

Perhaps, the only people to miss Mourinho’s presence in England will be the media since his public meltdowns have been a rich source of material for news publications over the years.

In the meantime, United currently sit sixth on the Premier League table. The club has only won once in the league since Nov. 3 and the disappointing result at Anfield was the final straw for the club’s board.

In addition, there has been further disappointment expressed from the board’s stance over the lack of initiative Mourinho has shown to develop United’s younger players and the academy.

The club issued a statement this morning over Mourinho’s departure which read:

“Manchester United announces that manager José Mourinho has left the club with immediate effect. The club would like to thank José for his work during his time at Manchester United and to wish him success in the future. A new caretaker manager will be appointed until the end of the current season, while the club conducts a thorough recruitment process for a new, full-time manager.”

A caretaker manager will be appointed until the end of the current campaign and a permanent manager will be put in place ahead of next season.

https://twitter.com/WayneSBarton/status/1074967949725917185

Names of possible temporary replacements have been thrown around in the news cycle, such as former Paris Saint Germain manager, Lauren Blanc, and United legends, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Gary Neville.

Tottenham manager, Mauricio Pochettino is said to be the club’s top choice as a permanent boss. Yet, it is widely believed that Spurs chairman, Daniel Levy will fight to keep the Argentian coach.

In terms of what’s next for the former Inter Milan, Chelsea, Real Madrid, and now Manchester United boss, I’m sure his recent dismissal will not deter another major club in Europe from hiring the manager.

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