Jose Mourinho is now officially on the hot seat

“Mourinho gets results.”

It’s the classic phrase uttered by Manchester United fans in response to any criticism of their manager’s boring, defensive, conservative style of play. And it’s true, Jose Mourinho has shown that he can grind out results, and has a couple of minor trophies to show for it. But what happens when Mourinho doesn’t get results?

Well, what has happened is that Jose Mourinho’s employment status at the club is now hanging by a thread.

On Tuesday, United were embarrassed at home in the Champions League Round of 16 by a team that is currently barely holding onto a Europa League spot in La Liga. They were out-shot, out-possessed, and quite frankly outclassed by Sevilla over these two legs.

If it weren’t for the heroics of David de Gea and Eric Bailly, things could have gotten ugly, and there is no one to blame but Jose Mourinho. In what was arguably United’s most important game since Mourinho’s appointment, the Portuguese manager floundered with poor tactics and a poor team selection.

He decided not to pick Paul Pogba, the man that United paid over 100 million euros for last season. Instead, he gave the nod to Marouane Fellaini, who hasn’t started a game for United since they played Basel in November, which was a game that also ended in an embarrassing defeat.

He also apparently has this obsession with playing strikers on the wing, with the latest edition being Marcus Rashford playing on the right-hand side. It seemed like Rashford spent more time tracking back to defend on Tuesday than getting forward into dangerous positions and creating chances.

It’s almost as if Mourinho doesn’t want to attack unless absolutely necessary, and we saw that when Anthony Martial and Juan Mata were thrown on in a panic after conceding the first goal, when they should have already been on the pitch to begin with.

Manchester United’s illustrious legacy was founded upon a free-flowing, attacking style of play. That said, it’s really a shame because the personnel at Mourinho’s disposal would fit this style so well.

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When you look at United’s roster and see names like Romelu Lukaku, Anthony Martial, Alexis Sanchez, Marcus Rashford, Juan Mata, Paul Pogba, and even Jesse Lingard, you would expect this team to be finding the back of the net 3 or 4 times a game. But that just hasn’t been the case this season, and all of this attacking talent is being wasted by Mourinho’s insistence on playing such a conservative, defensive style of play.

Rashford, Martial, and Mata are constantly being played out of position, and Pogba isn’t given the license to get forward and create and be involved in the attack. Alexis Sanchez has admittedly been poor since arriving from Arsenal, but when he’s tracking back and receiving the ball in such a deep area, that’s not really doing him any favors.

United could be so much better than they currently are, and it’s very frustrating to watch. They have way too much talent to be bowing out of the Champions League like this, and should not be 16 points behind Manchester City in the Premier League.

If you just look at the squads on paper, United has just as much talent as City does. The main difference is that City have bought into Pep’s style, and they’re now playing some of the most beautiful football in Europe.

Yesterday on BT Sport, Steven Gerrard suggested that United need to spend more, but I just don’t agree with that. You could have put Messi, Ronaldo, and a reincarnation of Pele into this team, and they still probably would have lost against Sevilla, all because of Mourinho’s restrictive playstyle.

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Nothing is going to change at United until Mourinho gets sacked, and I would not be surprised to see that happen this summer. That’s my view, but I would love to hear yours. Should Jose Mourinho wave goodbye to Manchester United?