Jose Mourhino Axed
Jose Mourhino was Sacked in a spectacular fashion by an annoyed board of directors
Former Coach Jose Mourhino who had a dismal campaign. And fired a week before Christmas and a godsend to United fans across the globe
Manchester United’s head coach was fired less than a week before Christmas, after a dismal season. Seven wins, five ties and five losses is not something expected from one of the richest clubs in the world. Neither is losing to last place clubs such as Huddersfield Town, Brighton Hove & Albion, and League Leaders Arch Rivals Liverpool.
As a result of this pathetic record, Manchester United fans both young and old were calling for the dismissal of the 55-year-old Portuguese manger. Their wishes were granted shortly before the holidays, as news came out from sporting director Ed Woodward that Mourhino had been officially fired. It was a shock to many, who expected him to be there until the end of the season. Ian Roshka, a former Lafayette student, concurs stating, “I mean United was doing bad but I didn’t think they would get rid of Mourhino” .
United had never fired a manger mid-way through a season before unless European football was not a possibility. However, after Manchester United conceded 32 goals more than the Red Devils conceded in of all last season, people were sure that Mourhino deserved to get dismissed.
Since his termination, many people have questioned if his qualifications as head, or if he was purposefully trying to destroy United from the inside after an interview was released implying he was trying to fulfill that promise.
Others thought his style of play was outdated in the modern age; his preference consists of defending from the front foot, compared to Mourhino’s style of sitting back and defending. World-renowned mangers, Jürgen Kloop and Pep Gudiola have criticized his style of play for being outdated and sloppy. Thomas Long, member of the community says,“ the players at the club look transformed and are playing like the weight of the world is no longer on their shoulders, he added “that they take more risk and reap the rewards in every match look like the world class team they actually are.“
Mourhino’s style also revolved around his entire team around sitting back and defending. That style of play is not what Manchester United Fans want. They want to get forward, score goals, and defend from the front foot. Mourhino has been criticized before for his style of play and not being aggressive enough and only focusing on defense. Even when playing small teams, he tends to look only at the defense and discourages risky play and shooting from a distance over not shooting at all. This allowed other teams to press United to win games over the biggest club in the world. Defending does not win titles when the team is in a rebuilding stage and doesn’t have the key people in place to just sit back and defend over the course of a game let alone a whole season consisting of 38 games plus tournaments and International breaks where player’s go and play for their country. He also does not play players in their position, which is uncomfortable for them and for the people watching United under Mouhrino.
New Interim manger Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has guided United to a six game winning streak and closed the nine point gap on the top four.
In his first season coaching the club, he began explicitly criticizing his players, proposing a desire to improve by benching his best positioned players for no concise reason. Paul Pogba, a 2018 world cup winner, has suffered the most being brought in by Mouhrino, as he constantly benched and publically criticized . Pogba wasn’t the only player to suffer Mourhino’s ire, as England Defender and Luke Shaw former, starter Louis Van Gaal has known his experienced his fare share of Mourhino’s wrath. Also two defenders Mourhino signed, Eric Baily and Victor Lindelöf, both very young and promising were only played once in contest in which United ended up winning 4-0 with 2 shots conceded throughout the whole game.
New interim Manger Ole Gunnar Skojeksar has taken over, going on to win five games in a row for the struggling soccer giants. They won 5-1 over Cardiff, 4-1 against Bournemouth, 3-1 over Huddersfield and 2-0 against Newcastle, outscoring their opposition 14-3, which is a major achievement. One fan that wishes to remain Anonymous ” says he looks forward to the places Man U can go for the rest of the year” United fans are looking forward to the rest of the season to see where it takes them and let us hope it will end in something good for United.
