Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United reign depends on victory over Newcastle as spectre of Zinedine Zidane looms
The United manager cannot afford another defeat before the next international break - as Rafael Benitez’s Real Madrid departure shows when Zidane came in from the cold
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Your support makes all the difference.A manager known for parking the bus and throwing his players under them broadened his repertoire on Tuesday night by complaining about his side’s coach trip to Old Trafford.
Not unusually for Jose Mourinho in the wake of defeat, his comments placed more emphasis on deflection than veracity as he blamed Greater Manchester Police for providing no police escort despite the club having been advised of the arrangements months before.
Deflection and distraction continue to be the order of the day, never more so after another trudging display.
On the same day that Theresa May appeared to boast about ending freedom of movement in Europe, Jose Mourinho appeared to have done the same in a staid Champions League performance against Valencia that’s only lighter moments were dark humour, such as Eric Bailly’s comically errant shot from nearly 40 yards.
As dull as the 0-0 draw with Valencia was, though, this was a game where there did at least seem to be more effort than before, and a little more obvious quality.
The problem is that it still isn't up to the standards of effort and quality you'd expect from a side this packed with talent. There is no escaping that this is a stellar squad and the attempts to paint it as a rag-tag bunch of journeymen should not pass the sniff test with anyone. On a basic level, once the transfer window closes your job is to coach the players to make them perform better individually and as a team. This is something clearly missing at Manchester United right now, while any thoughts of uniting the squad seem like a distant ambition. Mourinho's insinuations that this is a squad to be fixed in the next transfer window have gone on for two seasons now, and while the recruitment is an area that needs attention the constant clamouring for the signings of tomorrow only contribute to the picture that makes him look more and more like the man of yesterday.
Antonio Valencia liking an Instagram post that was broadly supporting him as a player, but had a minor note at the end about Mourinho's inability to do the job, isn't really a concern. Not in isolation, at least. But it is impossible to strip these micro-incidents of the context in which they live. Paul Pogba is now banned from talking to journalists in the mixed zone – hardly the sign of a healthy, happy playing squad – while the spectre of Zinedine Zidane looms large over a squad that many feel only needs an empathetic coach who can coax the natural ability out of these players.
Amid Mourinho's pining for the future and the new players that might arrive comes the feeling that he is letting United's present rot while he waits.
It is bad timing for the Portuguese that a failure at home against winless Newcastle United on Saturday, helmed by old foe Rafael Benitez, could be more damaging simply because it backs onto an international break.
Benitez found to his own cost in his brief tenure at Real Madrid that these fortnights can be the most testing times. He was still undefeated heading into the October international break early in his reign as manager at the Bernabeu but the whispering had begun after a goalless stalemate at home to Malaga then a 1-1 draw with Atletico. He then won every game until a 3-2 defeat at Sevilla a month later, heading into the November internationals, which is when Florentino Perez told him to drop his enforcer Casemiro and play big-money signing James Rodriguez in the upcoming clásico ... or else.
Barcelona, running riot in midfield, won 4-0 at the Bernabeu.
Benitez lost just one game after that but was still ousted in January to allow Zidane to take over. The rest, as they say, is historia, but Benitez made the point at the time that bad results leading into international breaks often carry with them far more weight. Two weeks of media ruminating and analysing, of talking heads and club legends shouting down your credentials.
The latter has already begun for Mourinho, with Paul Scholes and Rio Ferdinand emphatically joining the critical chorus this week. Should Benitez beat Mourinho on Saturday then things may turn out the same for the Portuguese as they did for Rafa – and in a curious quirk, he may be replaced by the same man.
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