Jose Mourinho had his first ever press conference as Manchester United manager after being officially unveiled by the club today. It was already a massive step up from Moyes and Van Gaal when he stated he has joined the biggest club in the world and he’s here to win. It’s evident why United fans are very excited by his appointment. The arrogance that oozed out of United’s play in their years of dominance under Sir Alex Ferguson on the field is exactly what Jose Mourinho displays time and time again. Another habit he has in common with United is that of winning. Although the standards at Old Trafford have dropped the last 3 years, Mourinho recognizes the stature of the great club.
Manchester United have a long standing tradition of promoting players from the academy, most notably the class of 92 which included legends such as Giggs, Scholes, Beckham, the Neville brothers and Nicky Butt. In fact, the FA Cup final was the 3,803 rd consecutive game since October 1937 that United had a youth player in the squad for a first team game. A lot of people think that Mourinho will ruin this tradition and choose to sign young players instead. However, the Portuguese manager was prepared for that question and he said he’s given 49 players their debuts. That is a very impressive number and it includes some very impressive players like Davide Santon, Alvaro Morata, Casameiro, Jese Rodriguez and most recently at Chelsea, Reuben Loftus-Cheek and Bertrand Traore.
Another aspect that critics have not shied away from voicing their opinions about is about his tactics. In his second tenure at Chelsea, their style of play was referred to as defensive and boring with the popular term “parking the bus” being used. Manchester United however became famous for their flowing attacking football that they started playing under Sir Alex which have made critics question whether Mourinho’s United will stick to the Manchester United way. But the fact that Mourinho is a defensive manager is more farce than facts and has only become a theory in his latest stint at Chelsea.
While Mourinho was at Porto and Inter, his sides always finished as top scorers. However, what really proves this defensive theory to be rubbish is his years at Real Madrid. In his first season with the Los Blancos, they scored 102 goals, 7 more than Barcelona. The next year, he went on to win the La Liga with Real, their only title in the last 8 years once again outscoring Barcelona by 7 goals. With goal scorers like Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Anthony Martial and the ever hungry Marcus Rashford, there is no doubt that United will score plenty of goals.