Jose Mourinho must score one point in the Champions League while Manchester United play Valencia



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By Miguel Delaney


According to the description given by two personalities of the locker room of Manchester United, the atmosphere is "extremely depressing". And it was in the few days that preceded the sad defeat against West Ham.

The ensuing scene was naturally even worse, fueling this cycle of poor results and growing pressure to win the next match – a difficult Champions League clash against Valencia, coming out of this broader round of Jose Mourinho's career. Nobody can now doubt that this is really one of those seasons. Nobody can doubt it, everyone feels now in the balance, maybe the final game. The results can force the hand of Ed Woodward's executive.

It's already dreary. The best team in the world of football, and it is expected that the title at least be played for the title, has three defeats and a draw of seven games. This represents only 10 points, with a return of 10 goals for 12 against 12, which makes even more sad such a spectacle. Even more striking, this leaves Mourinho two points more than Chelsea at this stage in 2015-16. It is also exactly the same number of points that David Moyes had after seven games in 2013-14, making it the worst start in the US since 1990 and the third worst of two points since the introduction of three points for a victory.

All this also explains why the bad atmosphere – and then all the bad results that result – go well beyond the situation of Paul Pogba, even if this is where Mourinho deserves some sympathy. As anyone who has objectively followed Mourinho's career plans could easily have predicted it, he does not seem to have positive answers to things that go wrong, let alone as the game evolves. So it was after the elimination of the League Cup in Derby County on Tuesday that Mourinho locked himself up with his staff for hours to try and find something different tactically for West Ham.

The "solution" was this: a bizarre three against Scott McTominay and an unnecessarily negative system against a Manuel Pellegrini team whose specific problems were: a high line, a porosity at the back, a lack of cohesion. How do you come to the decision to sit against that? This is his fault, his fundamental nature as a manager: an inherent defense and caution, in a modern game where the attack is more dominant than ever.

Then, it is necessary to underline the total lack of links between Mourinho and the team, its hardened direction making ironically this team so soft, so easily beatable. This is not a group of players under his influence. Not everyone hates him, but he has lost a lot, which has resulted in the loss of so many games.

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