Jose Mourinho Has Made Mistakes, but Manchester United Are Much Improved

Manchester United’s attack misfired one more time against West Ham United at Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon. The game finished as the fourth draw in a row at home in the Premier League. Three of those have ended 1-1.

Jose Mourinho has been sent off in two of them. In both cases, frustrations over refereeing decisions were the trigger points, but it is hard not to imagine they have boiled to the surface so readily as a consequence of the general level of irritation he must feel about his team’s results.

#MUFC boss Jose Mourinho facing a two-match ban after being sent to the stands against West Ham: https://t.co/UR7RPas3Ip pic.twitter.com/ZeoBOnbUDJ

— Sky Football ⚽️ (@SkyFootball) November 28, 2016

This draw was, in truth, something of a disaster in terms of its impact on United’s season.

The Stoke City draw could be written off as a fluke. The Burnley draw felt like an outlier as it was happening, such was United’s dominance. The Arsenal draw was much more of a problem given the points that had already been dropped and the missed opportunity to deny the Gunners a point given their superior league position.

Sunday’s draw leaves United sixth, eight points off the Champions League spots and 11 off first.

After 13 games, this is still not insurmountable, but it is a serious deficit, especially given that all five of the teams above the Red Devils are perennial campaigners for those spots.

The number that leaps out from a look at the league table is “three.” That is United’s goal difference—in the positive column but bizarrely short of where it should be in terms of shots taken and chances created.

It’s frustrating at the moment but watching United under Jose Mourinho has become enjoyable again. Shots, touchline antics. I’m happy.

— Alex Simmonds (@alex_simmo) November 28, 2016

Some of this would appear to be down to the cruel whim of fate. As the Hammers earned their creditable point, United fans were left wondering when and if the extended spell of bad luck, poor finishing, good goalkeeping and questionable refereeing that has dominated the last couple of months of league football at Old Trafford would end.

But the manager—while he has clearly made United a much more dangerous prospect than they were in Louis van Gaal’s desperately dull second season—does have a case to answer on one or two points.

It is hard not to think a couple of specific tweaks could have made a big difference against West Ham, and the distraction of getting sent off again could not have helped much.

He had heavily hinted that Henrikh Mkhitaryan would be part of the United starting XI, but in the end, the Armenian and Wayne Rooney were replaced by the homegrown duo of Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford.

Six changes from midweek as De Gea, Rojo, Darmian, Herrera, Lingard and Rashford return to the #MUFC starting XI. #MUNWHU pic.twitter.com/m33SHjJQew

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) November 27, 2016

Lingard scored a brilliant goal in the latter stages of United’s dominant 4-0 Europa League win over Feyenoord on Thursday night, but Mkhitaryan had been man of the match in what felt like a kind of second United debut.

Leaving him out after that performance may have been based in sound sports science—he had had a long break from football before his 82-minute run-out against the Dutch side, so another appearance from the start a couple of days later might have been physically risky.

Given how good his …

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