Rohan Sengupta
Everyone knew that Henrikh Mkhitaryan was a talented player before he arrived at Manchester United last summer, but Jose Mourinho’s reluctance to play him was baffling.
Last year, the Armenia international struggled to make an impact and was substituted at half-time in the Manchester derby, which United lost 2-1 at home. And it took almost upto late November last season for Mkhitaryan to get into Mourinho’ first-team plans and score his first goal for the club a month later.
Mkhitaryan started this campaign so well by providing 5 assists in 3 Premier League games. But since then, the former Borussia Dortmund man has faded like anything and has been slipped down the pecking order at Old Trafford.
Mourinho has dropped Mkhitaryan for 5 of the last 6 matches and didn’t include him in the travelling squad for last week’s games at Watford and Arsenal, with the midfielder’s last start coming in the 1-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge to Chelsea.
Discussing why Mkhitaryan was out the squad last month, Mourinho said:
“I was not happy with his last performances. I’m not speaking about one or two, I’m speaking about three, four or five.
“He started the season very well and after that, step by step, he was disappearing.
“His performance levels in terms of goal scoring and assists, high pressing, recovering the ball high up the pitch, bringing the team with him as a No.10, were decreasing step by step.
“That was enough because the others worked to have a chance. Everybody works to have a chance. It’s as simple as that,” the United manager added.
However, Manchester United tried to celebrate the Armenian’s first goal for the club but it ended in nothing less than a disaster. A year ago, Mkhitaryan scored his first goal for the club in the Europa League clash against Zorya Luhansk in Ukraine.
Our club tweeted a picture of Mkhitaryan scoring in the Europa League and wrote: “.@HenrikhMkh struck his first #MUFC goal on this day last year…”
The tweet didn’t go well with our fan base, as many roasted the Armenian for his recent dip in form. Take a look at some of the tweets we have gathered.
He needs to be brought back to life
— DM (@Dazzling__David) December 8, 2017
Sell him.
— ⚽Sam⚽ (@Special1JoseM) December 8, 2017
And the rest is mediocrity
— ♆ Prince Paul (@ShawFutbol) December 8, 2017
Fans reaction when we see Micki is on bench pic.twitter.com/sxVFIvWhs5
— Arthur Adamyan (@Arthur_Adamyan) December 8, 2017
Shame he’s been shit ever since
— Liam ⚽ (@LiamDoel) December 8, 2017
Sell him
— Michael (@Mour1nhodd) December 8, 2017
@bdortmund selling a fake to us first kagawa now this guy
— Richard (@RichSutton10) December 8, 2017
And since den hes being basically dead. He needs a Revival
— 💛GodIsKing👑 (@AlBonnyBigaman) December 8, 2017
