Mourinho admits mistakes against Manchester City
Manchester United’s manager Jose Mourinho has admitted to some failures after Manchester United’s defeat to Premier League and Mancunian rival Manchester City.
With Manchester United’s defeat at the hands of Pep Guardiola’s brilliant Manchester City squad Jose Mourinho has admitted to defeat. It is now unlikely that the Red Devils will be able to catch Manchester City and that the title is now as much as conceded to the Sky Blue’s of Pep Guardiola.
Jose Mourinho has an unenviable task when he arrived in Manchester and it was certainly a difficult one. Following the loss of the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson Manchester United have become something of a sleeping giant. Not in the same sense as Liverpool as they still possess a level of economic superiority that few in world football can match besides Real Madrid but in terms of actual trophies collected they are.
The failures of David Moyes and Louis Van Gaal have both exemplified just how difficult a job it is managing the red half of Manchester.
That said Mourinho has failed in a litany of ways the Machiavellian Portuguese manager rarely does. His Manchester United team sat too deep against City and allowed them too much space in the final third. In order to beat City war needs to be waged in the midfield. Pin pack De Bruyne and David Silva.
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The battle is not going to be won against Sane, Sterling, Aguero and Jesus. It simply will not. But a younger Jose Mourinho would have figured that out. He masterminded victories against some of the best Barcelona sides of all time that played in this way. The secret is to stifle them earlier before the play even begins.
Man mark the deep players and don’t allow them to move the ball up the field. Deny Busquets and Mascherano and press the central defenders. He marked Ronaldinho and Messi out of matches with Gudjohnsen and Makelele at Chelsea and then he did it with Milito at Inter. Fernandinho should have been marked out of the game by Lukaku but he never was. Lukaku was all around simply poor against City and that frankly can’t be ignored.
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Jose Mourinho’s men did not look up to snuff against City and yet still the Manchester United manager persisted. Without Pogba this team looks too average. It simply isn’t something that’s going to work if it continues in this manner. They’re too expensive and talented of a team to be allowing this sort of thing to happen.