Worse than David Moyes: The unwanted history Manchester United made under Jose Mourinho

Worse than David Moyes: The unwanted history Manchester United made under Jose Mourinho
Under Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United would challenge for honours every season, and more often than not they would win to become the most successful football team in English top flight history.Their continued success was as predictable as could be, and the Old Trafford club are certainly predictable right now.This is a different kind of predictable, however. A dour, morose and unfriendly kind; the kind that has removed all joy from Old Trafford and turned the Theatre of Dreams into a suffocating prison of tedium, fear and oppressiveness – a place where dreams have become nightmares.5

You would find more cheer in a graveyard than Old Trafford under Mourinho

Their woe is me manager has finally been sacked – Jose Mourinho was shown the door on Tuesday morning – and maybe there is a brighter future on the horizon.Whoever is appointed the club’s caretaker manager surely cannot make things much worse, with Mourinho guiding United to an historically dreadful start to the season.Sunday’s defeat to Liverpool keeps Manchester United sixth in the Premier League table, 11 points behind the top four and 19 points behind their vanquishers, who top the table.5

Xherdan Shaqiri scored twice with Sadio Mane grabbing the other in Liverpool’s 3-1 win

They are just one point ahead of Wolves – who playing their first top flight season since 2011/12 – and have the same goal difference as the Molineux club.United’s win rate is less than 50 per cent, and they’ve already conceded 29 league goals after 17 matches.

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Not only is this more than any other team in the first 15 places in the table – Cardiff, down in 16th, have conceded 33 goals – but it is a worse goals against record than Huddersfield, who sit 19th having won just two matches all season.On further inspection, United’s defensive record looks no better.In fact, it has been over half a century – 56 years to be precise – since the club had conceded more goals at this stage of a top-flight league season, and they’ve already let in more this term than they did in the entirety of the previous campaign, when United’s defence was breached on just 28 occasions.It goes on.Almost 12 years have passed between Mourinho’s last (January 2007) and most recent(December 2018) defeats at Anfield, and United’s points tally (26) is their lowest at this stage of a season since 1990/91.5

United ended the 90/91 season in sixth, 26 points behind champions Arsenal

Furthermore, the gap between United and Liverpool (19 points) is the largest after 17 matches of a top-flight season, based on the number of points for a win at the time.One of the main defences Mourinho’s loyalists used was that his spell wasstill not as bad as that endured half a decade ago under David Moyes.The ‘Chosen One’ was sacked after 10 months in charge at Old Trafford, with United seventh in the Premier League and guaranteed to finish outside the top three for the first time since the competition was rebranded in 1992.The problems faced under Moyes resurfaced with Mourinho in charge – poor defence, boring football, players not performing to their potential – and the stats show it is actuallyworse now than it was back then.5With this record highlighted, it’s important to remember just how much money has been spent by United since Moyes’ dismissal back in April 2014. The kind of money that should move the club forward, not send them even further backwards.Manchester United finally made the decision to sack Mourinho on Tuesday morning, with a club statement confirming a caretaker will be appointed until the end of the season to succeed the Portuguese.5

Ed Woodward, the club’s executive vice-chairman, made the decision to axe Mourinho this week

And the club let the situation get very, very bad before they bit the bullet and dismissed Mourinho.He has alienated an entire fan base, causing them to fall out of love with a club they have supported for a lifetime, and the damage he has done is sure to mean Mourinho’s managerial reign goes down as one of the most underwhelming in Premier League history.

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