Star manager has selection issues to confront as Manchester United season continues
Jose Mourinho has some decisions to make. The Manchester derby exposed that his nemesis, Pep Guardiola, and Manchester United’s neighbours, Manchester City, are at a more advanced stage of their development.
Guardiola’s collective was something to behold, whereas United have a conundrum: some high calibre individuals who usually would have teams built just around them. He signed Serie A’s top assist merchant and the Bundesliga’s assist king from last season, yet both Paul Pogba and Henrikh Mkhitaryan would love the freedom and to operate in the area of the field currently occupied by Wayne Rooney.
ISSUE 1: PAUL POGBA
If you sign someone for a world record fee, you build your team around him, don’t you? At the moment, Pogba has taken his place in the central midfield pairing alongside Marouane Fellaini in a 4-2-3-1, when it is clear he wants to break the shackles and surge forward freely, as he did with Juventus. But like any jigsaw, tweaking formations has implications for other key commodities, let alone the fact the pragmatist in Mourinho prefers to operate that way. A player of Pogba’s talent should make an impact in that formation, but perhaps against bigger and more sophisticated opponents whom he cannot bully, he is being held back there.
Didier Deschamps couldn’t find the riddle at the Euros without compromising Antoine Griezmann, but he didn’t pay a world record for him, either. So if he moves to a 4-3-3, as he did in the second half against City, with Ander Herrera holding in midfield, that means…
ISSUE TWO: WAYNE ROONEY
The England and United skipper is meant to be indispensable, but is he really? He’s not playing in midfield this season, says Mourinho, and he’s not leading the line with Zlatan Ibrahimovic there. If he doesn’t have the pace to play on the right or left in a 4-3-3, where does that leave him? The 4-3-3 would suit Jesse Lingard, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial more with their freedom and personality.
ISSUE THREE: Zlatan starts, but get Rashford involved. What about Martial?
The signing of Ibrahimovic was always going to somewhat curtail the development of Rashford and Martial as bona fide No.9s, but so far this season, it seems the England teenager is more willing to earn his stripes wider, making an impact against Hull and City. His form means he deserves to play. Both can play in a 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3 but then…
ISSUE FOUR: What about all Mourinho’s playmakers?
Mourinho has never been a huge fan of creative playmakers, preferring robust workers and team players, but he started Juan Mata in games earlier this season, before omitting him for the derby. The Spaniard would love to play No 10, but is more likely to be asked to create from wider in the 4-2-3-1 and cut inside to combine with teammates.
The issue with Lingard, Mata, Martial and Rashford (and Memphis Depay in theory, but he hasn’t been cited) all being deployed so far this season has meant that Armenian Mkhitaryan, a signing hailed from the Bundesliga after his extraordinary final season with Dortmund, is currently a square peg in a round hole. He failed – albeit undercooked – when thrown into the derby ahead of Mata, and we haven’t yet seen him in his favoured central playmaking role.
ISSUE FIVE: Lots of midfielders unused
Ander Herrera got the nod as the passing, defensive fulcrum when Mourinho went to a midfield three, but how content are Michael Carrick and Morgan Schneiderlin biding their time on the bench? Marouane Fellaini has been chosen for his workrate and robustness in midfield, a supposed protector and foil for Pogba. Will that strategy prevail?
ISSUE SIX: When getting dominated, where's the width?
Antonio Valencia and Luke Shaw have been key cogs in the first three rounds, with the likes of Mata, or Martial ‘wide’ players who like to ‘tuck inside’ because they’re naturally central type players. But when a rampant City pegged back Valencia and Shaw with a mountain of defensive work, what happens to United’s width if Mourinho continues with that strategy?
Mourinho’s United are a force to be reckoned with, but he’s still got some major issues to confront against the elite opposition, and how to not only keep his stars happy, but get the most out of their talents.
