Could Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho again be experiencing his “third season” syndrome, which has become synonymous with his career, although this time a year early? Mourinho, recently given a contract extension, is in year two at Old Trafford, but acting out with the kind of peculiarities that often come during the third season he is at the helm of a club.
Just yesterday, he spent about 80% of his Friday news conference on a bizarre monologue that questioned United’s “football heritage.” Today, despite winning 2-0 over Brighton & Hove Albion, and thus securing a place in the FA Cup semifinals, he completely ripped into most of his own team on multiple levels.
Only midfielder Nemanja Matic was spared from heavy criticism. Mourinho lit into his team, saying they lacked class, personality and desire.
“I want more personality in the team,” Mourinho said postgame.
“I felt like Matic was an island of personality, of desire, of control, surrounded by not water but surrounded by lack of class, lack of personality, lack of desire.”
It’s so odd for him to say this right after an important win. It would make a lot more sense for Mourinho to slam his own side like this after the Champions League crash out on Tuesday night. If you’re into wagering on Europe, and the type of person who capitalizes on bookies free bet offers, you obviously knew that United were huge favorites over Sevilla, with most of the action backing them to advance to the quarterfinals. Mourinho’s rant today would have been applicable to the Red Devils performance on Tuesday night instead.
Mourinho also ripped young midfielder Scott McTominay, but at the same time also praised the 21-year-old for how he handled himself after making his mistakes.
“I have to say, for example, McTominay lost more passes today than in all the matches he played together, but he was a Manchester United player, and for me a Manchester United player is a player that when he plays bad, he gives to the team. That’s a question of personality, that’s a Manchester United player for me,” Mourinho continued.
“The perfect Manchester United player is the one that has quality and personality and is consistent on that, but when you play bad, and as a football player you can play bad, when you play bad you must have that personality that a kid with 20 years old had, and some of the others they didn’t have.”
Tottenham Hotspur beat Swansea City 3-0 in the other FA Cup quarterfinal today. The winners of Chelsea-Leicester City and Wigan Athletic-Southampton will determine the final two spots in the FA Cup semifinals.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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