The flaws Jose Mourinho pinpointed at Manchester United still ring true

Portuguese was at the helm from 2016 until 2018 and those critical comments both during and since his reign have aged well

Jose Mourinho could be forgiven a few knowing glances and the temptation to say “I told you so” this week as he prepares to face his former club Manchester United with Fenerbahce in the Europa League in Istanbul.
It is approaching six years since the Portuguese was sacked by United, with his toxic final six months at the club mired by division, infighting and a breakdown in relations.
At the time, some of Mourinho’s criticisms about the club, its operations, behaviours and players felt like sour grapes: a man seeking to keep up appearances or pass the buck or perhaps both.
But the starker reality is that so much of what he has complained about still rings true, time giving greater legitimacy to those unsparing home truths, some of which are only starting to be addressed now.
With United in the throes of yet another autumn crisis – their seventh in 12 years – and Erik ten Hag under huge pressure as manager despite Saturday’s morale-boosting 2-1 win over Brentford, Telegraph Sport revisits some of Mourinho’s statements in the context of where the club now stands. This is the Gospel according to José.
“If I tell you that I consider one of the best jobs of my career was to finish second with Man Utd in the Premier League, you will say: ‘This guy is crazy. He won 25 titles and now he is saying that second position with United was one of his best achievements in football. I keep saying this because people don’t know what is going on behind the scenes.” January 17 2019
Oh how we chuckled when Mourinho came out with the above. There was a time, after all, when second used to be considered nowhere at Old Trafford. The younger, serial-winning Mourinho might have even scolded his older self for muttering such gibberish. Only he had a very valid point. 
No other United manager in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era has eclipsed Mourinho’s record of 81 points, 25 wins and +40 goal difference in the 2017-18 campaign, when United finished second – 19 points behind champions Manchester City.
With United currently 11th, with a negative goal difference and six points adrift of the top four, Mourinho’s “record” does not feel under threat this season either.
“We went out to a side that’s more successful than Manchester United in the last seven years in Europe. Do you think they didn’t have any players who could play in my team? In Sevilla, there are many players who would play in my team”. After defeat to Sevilla in last-16 of Champions League, March 16 2018
Mourinho’s infamous, 12-minute sermon about United’s feeble modern “heritage” in Europe as a means of justifying why a defeat to Sevilla no longer looks or sounds like self-preservation. Five years later, Ten Hag’s United were dumped out of the Europa League quarter-finals by the same Spanish opponent. Little had changed in the intervening period. 
Last season’s Champions League group stage exit was the second time in four seasons United had been eliminated at the first hurdle and this season’s Europa League campaign has started unconvincingly, with draws against Twente and Porto increasing the pressure before Thursday’s game at a febrile Fenerbahce.
“In a team of 11 when you don’t have a minimum of six or seven players performing and wanting to play, wanting the responsibility of having the ball, showing the desire to play, it’s difficult to have the performance. 
“When I spend two days on a faster build-up and the ball arriving earlier in attacking areas, when I spend two days working on this and arrive here to see attacking players hiding behind defenders, not wanting the ball in between the lines, defenders taking square passes, I have to feel frustrated. 
“Nemanja Matic was an island of personality, of desire, of control, surrounded by a lack of personality, lack of class, lack of desire.” March 17 2018
Mourinho was not actually talking after a defeat here but a victory over Brighton that sent United into the FA Cup semi-finals. His criticisms will chime with United supporters who have had to watch far too many performances in which players have failed to work hard enough, been cowed in and out of possession and not taken enough responsibility throughout the game. It has been the scourge of the post-Ferguson United.
“There are still people in that club, and when I say people I mean some players but also some other people that are not players, that are still there when I told [United] after two months: ‘With these people, you are never going to do it.’” December 19 2023
Mourinho felt United indulged mediocrity for too long with damaging consequences. Players who had been part of the problem kept surviving successive managers and United were left with bloated squads littered with demotivated and, in some cases, unruly individuals. At the same time, he felt there were entourages around the players who made “too many excuses” for them.
“Always making excuses makes you mature more slowly,” he said, and that it was a factor behind the struggles players had meeting the demands of representing United. Ten Hag is still wrestling with the same problem now: a mentally fragile team that routinely implodes at the first whiff of trouble.
“The players have to learn how to cope with that level of expectation and that level of pressure,” Mourinho said. “They have to survive and when they survive they become stronger. An easy life – the fans upset and no critics – that’s not good. If you want to make a real top team with a top mentality, you need to grow up.”
“I am who I am. I am a football man. Ed [Woodward, former CEO] comes from a different background and what Ten Hag has in his time at Manchester United I didn’t have. I didn’t have that level of support. I didn’t have that level of trust. In some moments, I felt if they trusted me and believed in my experience things could be different.” On the club’s failure to back his decisions, speaking to Telegraph Sport in April this year
Mourinho felt United lacked the structure to enable the club to “cope with all the problems modernity is bringing all of us” and only now, with an established sporting director in Dan Ashworth and highly regarded chief executive in Omar Berrada overseeing an experienced, revamped hierarchy do they have that in place. Mourinho complained about United’s recruitment – an enduring problem to this day – but also the failure to back the manager over certain players. 
The most glaring example of that was United’s decision to veto his request to sell the misfit Anthony Martial, who only left the club this summer six years after Mourinho had instructed them to get rid. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Ralf Rangnick and Ten Hag would all encounter their own problems with the France striker.
Mourinho also had similar challenges with Paul Pogba, who was indulged by the powers that be with corrosive effects. “When you are not supported … because the player is more important – then you are in a fragile situation,” Mourinho said. It is probably no surprise Ten Hag talked about inheriting a “no good culture” he is still struggling to fully correct although, unlike Mourinho, the Dutchman was firmly backed by the club in his disputes with Cristiano Ronaldo and Jadon Sancho in one clear step change from the past.
“We have four of five players that are ‘dead’ because they care for the club. They try to give everything, even risking themselves because they don’t want to let all the kids play by themselves against AC Milan, Liverpool and Real Madrid.” On United’s pre-season tour, July 28 2018
United’s pre-season tour of the US in 2018 was a mess from start to finish. Mourinho claimed it was not worth watching and decried being on the other side of the world with a threadbare squad in the wake of the World Cup. He felt he was left wholly unprepared for the forthcoming season and put his fit, available senior players at risk by asking them to play too many matches.
Mourinho was not the first United manager to complain about marathon pre-season tours: Louis van Gaal was a vocal critic and berated United for being a “commercial club” ahead of footballing concerns.
Yet United appear to have only just learnt that lesson. This summer’s shortened tour of the US with a central base, with less travelling and fewer games a direct response to the problems of 12 months earlier that players felt contributed to the club’s worst ever Premier League campaign.