Abhranil Roy
There has been a lot of hype and excitement around Manchester United lately, and that hasn’t been solely around the appointment of Jose Mourinho. The Portugese, who was appointed just before the Euros has bought in a number of exciting players to the team, and is not done with it yet. It seems that the club will break the record transfer fee for the midfielder Paul Pogba, apparently, because that is how important he is to Mourinho. Moreover, if pre-season is anything to go by, then it seems the players are settling into his style of football, as the Red Devils came from 2-1 down against Galatasaray to win 5-2 in the 2nd half. The team showed a great character, and the football we played, especially in the 2nd half impressed one and all. These are encouraging signs, and if build upon, could even yield us the title this season. Here are 3 reasons why I feel that could be a very possible scenario this time:
1. The “Jose effect”
Mourinho is not a manager whom you can take lightly, and his trophy cabinet will prove you exactly that. The Portuguese has won it all, and will be looking to prove to the world that he still has his mojo after an unsuccessful stint at Chelsea last year. He is the kind of manager who will get into fights with the referees, the linesmen, the FA and sometimes, even with other managers. However, his actions will unite the fans like no other, and put an immense psychological pressure on the opponents. The “Jose effect“, in the past, has seen his teams playing for him like they are meant to defend the earth, while the man himself received stick from everyone but his own fans. However, the former Inter Milan man has always had the last laugh.
2. His footballing style
Mourinho’s footballing style is compact but flexible. He doesn’t rotate his players a lot, but manages to get the best out of them by setting his teams up according to their strength. United have been known throughout the years for their fast, counter attacking style of football, and that could return under the man. The team has a solid core, and strong, physically imposing defenders like Chris Smalling, Phil Jones and Eric Bailly, pacy, overlapping fullbacks like Luke Shaw and Matteo Darmian, intelligent midfielders like Michael Carrick and Morgan Schneiderlin, creative wingers like Heinrikh Mkhitaryan and Anthony Martial and lethal forwards like Marcus Rashford and the legendary Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and that means Jose has a plethora of options to choose and employ.
3. The players themselves are hungry
It has been 3 years since we last won the league, and under such circumstances the players themselves will be very hungry to bury the mistakes of the past and move on to a better chapter. The FA Cup win last season should act as the perfect launching pad for that, and one hopes this will be the start of a new dawn at Old Trafford.
