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In case Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s perfect start as interim manager had made you forget how farcical Manchester United became under Jose Mourinho, or in case you had simply blocked out the bitterness and disillusionment of the Portuguese’s final few months in charge, a 1-0 win over Tottenham on Sunday served as a timely reminder – compare that to the reverse fixture at Old Trafford earlier this season, a 3-0 defeat for the Red Devils.
On that day, Mourinho deployed Ander Herrera as a right centre-half in a 3-5-1-1 formation, with Jesse Lingard the only support to the solitary figure of Romelu Lukaku. On Sunday, Solskjaer simply matched up with Tottenham’s diamond midfield and made sure there was enough speed on the pitch through Lingard, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial for his side to punish the hosts on the counter. That’s how the winning goal came; a revitalised Paul Pogba distributing an exquisite pass to Rashford who slotted beyond Hugo Lloris.
Mourinho will argue he suffered contrasting fortunes to his temporary successor, in a match he later suggested United lost through individual errors rather than his tactics. Tottenham didn’t play well at Old Trafford but were clinical enough to punish United thrice in a nervy performance from both teams. On Sunday, meanwhile, David De Gea produced the kind of majestic, impenetrable display – albeit aided by some tame finishing – that makes him arguably the best goalkeeper in the world. The scoreline could have been very different.
But you tend to make your own luck in football, and there’s an enormous sense of irony to United’s latest win in that it was pretty much the perfect underdog performance, the kind Mourinho at his greatest was synonymous with.
Tottenham were undoubtedly the better side by the full-time whistle, but United always looked confident and dangerous whenever they broke away, just as they all pitched in to stop the Spurs onslaught at the other end. Yes, Tottenham could and probably should have scored, but the fact United had so many bodies flailing in the box, trying to get in the way of the ball, narrowed down the angles to help secure De Gea’s clean sheet. Everyone played their part.
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A failure to think as grandly as Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola was Mourinho’s ultimate downfall at United; he always seemed to fall victim bigger and greater ideas that make winning trophies a mere byproduct of thrilling football, and never truly appreciated why the expectations at Old Trafford were so different to at Chelsea, where his pragmatism became iconic if not institutional.
But in other ways, in terms of tactics, team selection and dressing room politics, he made things too complicated at United, too reactionary and certainly too personal. After a calamitous 3-2 defeat to Brighton the weekend previous, Mourinho ditched Eric Bailly from his matchday squad entirely, benched Victor Lindelof and started Herrera in defence against Tottenham, or more specifically against arguably the best striker in the world in Harry Kane.
It was a gesture towards Ed Woodward, who refused to sanction a late summer move for a centre-half, and a particularly self-perpetuating one. After that game, United kept just two clean sheets in the Premier League until the time of Mourinho’s departure; Solskjaer’s managed to notch up as many from United’s last two games alone. It’s amazing what confidence can do to players who were implicitly told time and again by Mourinho that they weren’t good enough.
Chelsea’s implosion under Mourinho was self-perpetuating too. Span back to the start of the 2015/16 season and by the end of the first Premier League game, the Portuguese had already created unnecessary drama by essentially pinning a home draw with Swansea City on the actions of physio Eva Carneiro.
Four games later, three of which Chelsea had lost, and the darkened mood Mourinho brought over west London had snowballed into a full-blown crisis. The defending champions never really recovered from there as shock first-half substitutions, public deformation of key players and fall-outs with the club’s top earners followed, until Mourinho was eventually relieved of his duties in December.
It highlights the underlying theme behind the Special One regressing into something of a laughing stock, that Solskjaer’s success so far at United has only further amplified. Whether problems originate from Mourinho or others, he always seems to escalate them to the point where they become so consuming they suck all life and joy out of himself, the team and the club as a whole. Suddenly, the whole context of the situation changes and every poor performance is perceived as potentially catastrophic.
Solskjaer’s done nothing special, even if he has guided United to six consecutive wins; he’s merely treated players with respect, distanced inter-club politics from on-pitch performances and kept tactics specific yet simple. He’s relied on positivity and allowing the quality of United’s incredibly expensively-assembled squad to speak for itself. It’s not rocket science – it’s empowering players rather than putting them under unnecessary pressure.
That’s why United’s latest performance is such a slap in the face for Mourinho. Whereas his attempt to beat Tottenham at home transgressed into something strangely self-perpetuating and self-serving, Solskjaer – without any revolutionary tactical innovations, with an inherited squad Mourinho made a point of constantly lamenting as ill-equipped – has guided to United to an away win against the same team, following something close to a Mourinho game-plan.
Mourinho became the architect of his own downfall by making life at United so challenging, confrontational and complicated; Solskjaer is reaping the benefits of simplicity.