Thomas Hein
The Europa League debut of Jose Mourinho did not go as well as he would have wanted. Manchester United lost out to Feyenoord in the first group game of the competition. The 1-0 loss was tough to take as the Premier League side barely threatened the Dutch heavyweights.
Jose Mourinho wanted his side to play football against the Eredivisie team but what United did was basically defend for most of the first half. The United team did play Paul Pogba in the famed number 10 role but the Frenchman was poor in this attacking role for the team.
Manchester United did have 18 shots on goal but only four were on target. Not only that; there was a lack of urgency in the team and Mourinho did make all three substitutions in the second half at the same time.
Not that it helped Manchester United a lot, though. Marcus Rashford, Martial and even Paul Pogba looked extremely off colour and all the talk about playing attacking football went down the drain. This was a United side that seemed to be a couple of gears down and the blame can only fall on the shoulders of Jose Mourinho.
Playing the likes of Rashford and Anthony Martial in the team should have led to more quick attacks and a real urgency in the side. Both players did not start the game against Manchester City last weekend and it certainly was a surprise as to why they were not willing to take up their chance in the first team.
The lack of an attacking outlet led Mourinho to bring Zlatan Ibrahimovic but even the Swede was unable to do much for the side. If anyone is to be blamed for this loss, it has to fall on the shoulders of the manager.
Mourinho is known for playing a rather pragmatic style of football and it looked like the Red Devils had come to Holland to come out with a draw. They might have looked like a better side on paper but they were woeful in the attack.
This made it two defeats in two games for the Red Devils and this was not the kind of result Mourinho would have expected. While United did make a comeback in the game against City, this time around they were bereft of ideas to take on the Dutch side.
It does seem that it is back to the drawing board for Mourinho as he looks to rejig his tactics for the side but it just is not working for Manchester United.
