Mourinho throws entire Manchester United squad under the bus

Mourinho took no fault for United’s loss at Fenerbahce

No one should be surprised that Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho accepted no blame for the club’s latest loss at Fenerbahce. Per usual, The Special One chose to lay the blame squarely at the feet of his underachieving squad.

Mourinho claims he explicitly told his squad to expect a much different match against Fenerbahce in Turkey than the jaunt they enjoyed at Old Trafford. He compared his side’s level of effort in the match to that of a “summer friendly.” In case you missed it, United were dominated by the Turkish giants and left with a 2-1 defeat.

I don’t have any doubt that Mourinho tried to warn his players of the dangers of this match. However, it’s his responsibility as United’s manager to make sure his squad is ready to play. Clearly, United weren’t ready to play today by anyone’s standard.

Manchester United’s players certainly deserve their share of the blame. Aside from Wayne Rooney’s wonder striker in the second half, the rest of the squad put in a pretty listless performance. My point here isn’t to spare players their fair share of criticism.

Instead, I’m arguing that Mourinho should be sharing in the blame. The job of the manager isn’t done after you tell your squad something one time. The trick in being a top-notch gaffer is to get your players to enact your instructions. If your squad doesn’t put your plans into action, then you might as well have entered the match without a game plan.

You can already see cracks in Mourinho’s relationship with his squad. He’s endured public spats with Luke Shaw, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Bastian Schweinsteiger in his short tenure in charge. Coming out and failing to take any of the blame for United’s embarrassing Europa League loss isn’t going to win him any friends in the Old Trafford dressing room.

If Mourinho was smart, he would have been much more measured in his post-match comments. He could certainly have expressed his disappointment in his team’s effort level, but he should have fallen on the sword too. Would it really have killed him to admit his role in his team’s lackadaisical performance?