Jose Mourinho Risks Derailing His Improving Side with His Combative Outbursts

There was a frost in the air on Merseyside, but even the warmest spring sunshine couldn’t have pierced the icy fog collecting around Jose Mourinho. As Marouane Fellaini felled Idrissa Gueye with all the finesse that fans have come to expect from the unwieldy Belgian, and Leighton Baines lashed home Everton’s 89th-minute equaliser from the spot. Down on the away bench, the Manchester United manager’s face was fixed with a stony glare. It was a look to freeze mercury.

This was a game United had had comfortably in their hands but which they handed back to a grateful Everton in the final minutes. That’s seven points now dropped in the final 10 minutes of Premier League games this season for United, and there comes a point where even the footballing arch-pragmatist Mourinho must recognise he is failing in that eternal axiom of football management; it is his job not just to manage his team, but to also manage the game.

On Sunday, when United’s lead stood at a delicate 1-0 and the situation cried out for calm, he introduced a volatile element into proceedings, under the misapprehension that it would shore up a defence that was already doing a good job of holding firm.

His justification for replacing the excellent Henrikh Mkhitaryan with Fellaini—that placing a player standing at almost two metres tall in front of the back four would add an extra line of protection against an Everton side who were increasingly direct in their play—was sound. That’s even if his tetchy handling of the post-match press conference added fuel to the idea the Portuguese is a long way from having a firm grip on the deteriorating situation at Old Trafford.

Days before Everton, Mourinho had spoken about the “United DNA,” the philosophy he is trying to bring to bear on his team during these fledgling early weeks of his tenure. “We play now in between the opponents’ lines,” he declared. “We look forward; our defensive line is very high. Our central defenders don’t follow the man; they defend zonal. I only care about the way we play … keep the faith in the way we are playing and try to have better results, and let’s see where that ends.”

It makes for a worthwhile comparison when held up against what was said back in July, shortly after his unveiling. That day the talk was all about moving away from the prosaic methods employed by his predecessor Louis Van Gaal, espousing instead a game that moved vertically not horizontally, with directness and intensity. It was about not keeping possession just for the …

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