Season review: Jose Mourinho’s first year at Manchester United

Taking a break from the rumors of silly season, I am now grading the performance of each unit from this past season. I will start with the man on the bench, first year manager Jose Mourinho.

Coming into this season there were very high expectations for Mourinho and United. I realize that is somewhat redundant as there always are, but arguably they were higher this year than at any time post Sir Alex Ferguson. A sixth place finish in the league is disappointing, but overall United took a step in the right direction. How big of a step is debatable though.

United won three different trophies in their first year under the “Special One”; starting with the Community Shield (not a huge deal but it still counts). Later they won the League Cup for the first time since 2010 and the Europa League to get back into next season’s Champions League.

However, how much of that success was due to Mourinho?

On the plus side, Mourinho knows how to manage the grind of a season. He made some good tactical choices such as his conservative strategy at Anfield to split the points with Liverpool. At the end of the season he saved the players at the end of the Premier League schedule because he knew that the only way he’d make it to the Champions League was through Europe.

The gamble paid off. He also deserves a lot of credit for the far improved play of Marcos Rojo, who was having a great year before getting hurt. The oft-injured Phil Jones and Rojo were a revelation together.

On the negative side, he played Marouane Fellaini too much and sometimes in situations he was not cut out for. I still see him getting taken apart in the midfield by Kevin De Bruyne and Manchester City. The other major problem I had was he kept on switching up the players on the attack.

Obviously Zlatan Ibrahimovic wasn’t going anywhere, but Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial kept being switched in and out on the left. Then sometimes we’d see Henrikh Mkhitaryan at the ten and sometimes Juan Mata there. Also in the midfield Ander Herrera and Michael Carrick clicked but as soon as they did Carrick was taken out of the lineup.

Back to Mkhitaryan, he was one of the major signings last summer and his Premier League impact was minimal. The Player of the Year in the Bundesliga before coming to United did not live up to expectations. That does fall partially on Mourinho because he brought him in.

That said, Miki was one of the best players in Europa League competition and was injured at the start of the year; so it’d be a bit unfair to chalk him up as a failed Mourinho signing just yet. Eric Bailly and Paul Pogba were both excellent signings so I’d say his first summer was a success.

For the disappointments this season, there was plenty of blame to go around. Hitting the post over and over and not finishing was among the major culprits. United had at least a handful of games in which they drastically outplayed and outshot their opponent but didn’t win.

Games like Hull, both against Stoke, West Ham and even the first game against Arsenal were among the contests in which United should have gotten all three points. But the players not finishing on chances they should can’t be blamed on Mourinho. He put the players in positions to win and they did not execute.

Mourinho’s teams follow a simply theme: not flashy but they get the job done. It’s not going to remind fans of the attacking days of Sir Alex. But getting back to competing for Premier League titles is not far off.

Season Grade: B+

• Published on 06/30/2017 at 8:57 PM EST
• Last updated on 06/30/2017 at 8:57 PM EST