Team Focus: Should Manchester United Take the Plunge for Mourinho?

On Thursday evening, shortly after Jose Mourinho was sacked by Chelsea, the Portuguese was asked by a colleague about the next step and the job he has always really wanted: Manchester United. The 52-year-old said in response there are some roles that are just impossible to turn down.

The wonder, however, is whether United will again turn down Mourinho - and whether they should. Because, over the past few days, the Old Trafford club have not just been deliberating over whether to sack Louis van Gaal. They have been deliberating over whether Mourinho is the right replacement.

Some among the United hierarchy feel it’s finally time to give him the opportunity. Some are stridently anti-Mourinho. Others are undecided, but there is concern about what appointing the Portuguese would “represent”. That may sound rather overblown, but it illustrates how there are much deeper questions underlying all of this.

Above anything, there is the stark reality that United are still recovering from a seismic historical shift like the retirement of one of the two most influential figures in United’s history, Alex Ferguson. Everything in the club’s structure was shaped according to the Scot’s ideals, but they are not necessarily modern super-club ideals, and there is a lot that must be improved. It says much that United - of all clubs - have not had a permanent academy director since Brian McClair left.

As such, virtually everything off the pitch needs to be updated, but that is proving a slow and uncertain process that is beginning to be reflected on the pitch with slow and uncertain football. They are a club in need of direction. Mourinho’s single-mindedness about winning would at least provide that much.

There is even an argument that he would be more single-minded than ever this season. Stung by his sacking at Chelsea, the Portuguese will be determined to show his former club they were wrong; to fully prove them wrong. The fact this is a more open season than ever could only sharpen that focus, as it is still well within the realms of possibility that United could win the title. It would be quite a twist for Mourinho to win back the trophy he claimed last season at a different club. It is quite the motivation too. He could be in overdrive.

There is also the likelihood that the players would then see the best of the Portuguese too. The United hierarchy have been justifiably concerned about the amount of unsavoury controversies that Mourinho gets involved in, and it is said by many at Chelsea that their title-winning squad first got turned off the manager because he became so “obsessed” with these controversies - to the point they found it "odd". That is when he began to lose them.

That only happens when he spends time in a job, though, and would not be as much of a problem in the first 12 to 18 months - as Chelsea also illustrated. That part of it effectively comes down to a trade-off: short-term impact against medium-term problems. Of course, that very trade-off also touches on the deeper concerns.

It is not just that Mourinho doesn’t show faith in youth, something so important to United. It is that he doesn’t show enough faith in attacking football. He is fundamentally a reactive manager and, despite the sophistication of so much of his coaching, that sophistication has not applied to his attacking ideas. Various training-ground sources have said attacking drills are the most basic aspect of his management, and there is very little imagination or spark to his attacking play.

There is rarely much Pep Guardiola-style complexity to the moves, but that is also where this entire debate gets a little complex. When United figures talk about their traditional attacking principles, those principles tend to be idealised on the adventure of Matt Busby’s teams, or white-knuckle risk of the treble-winners. The truth is that Ferguson’s football became much more constrained in his last decade in management, and his approach was arguably closer to Mourinho’s than the marvellous 1999 side.

In his last two full seasons at Chelsea, for example, Mourinho’s side scored an average of 48 goals from open play per campaign, and 3 on the counter-attack. In Ferguson’s last four years as a manager - after Cristiano Ronaldo left for Real Madrid - those figures stood at 54 and 4, respectively.

At the same time, Mourinho sides have spent an average of 25% of games in their own third of the pitch, compared to 26.5% with Ferguson. As regards how much time they spent in the opposition third, trying to force the game? For Mourinho it is 31%, Ferguson 30% - and their possession stats are strikingly similar.

Of course, the bigger issue here is that United would not really be comparing Mourinho’s football with Ferguson’s last few seasons. They would likely be comparing it with Guardiola’s next few seasons, if the Catalan does - as expected - end up at Manchester City. That is the wider context to this. Guardiola would be the perfect final piece for City’s grand project, especially since everything around the Etihad has effectively been built with him in mind.

It could potentially lift City to the plane of Barcelona and Bayern Munich. It would also leave United with few comparable coaching options in response. In fact, the only current manager with the status, the CV and the force of personality to match Guardiola would be Mourinho. They would arguably need him to properly compete - at least for a short time.

That short time is the problem, as well as the fact that all of those qualities come without other attributes that United prize just as much. This is where the hierarchy’s worry about what appointing Mourinho would “represent” comes in. He would represent the ultimate compromise, for the sake of immediate competitiveness.

It is going to take further deliberation, not least on the future of Van Gaal. The decision could define United for years. It is not impossible to settle upon, but it is exceptionally difficult.

Should United get Mourinho in now and if not what are their best options? Let us know in the comments below