Manchester United appear to be hitting form at last, undefeated in the Premier League since October.
Start to the season
The glory days of Sir Alex Ferguson remain tinged in nostalgi,a but the reins of David Moyes and Louis Van Gaal are slowly being washed away and replaced by something slightly more, well, let’s say Manchester United – in terms of performance at least.
Yet, moments of individual brilliance have rarely translated into any prolonged period of real positivity, while damaging defeats to Chelsea and Manchester City left Manchester United well adrift of the chasing pack. And then came the draws. Lots and lots of draws.
Stoke, Liverpool, Burnley, Arsenal, West Ham and Everton all restricted Manchester United to a single point within the space of two months, although improvements in recent weeks have raised hopes of a belated top four charge. Nonetheless, that sentence alone proves expectations have not been fulfilled.
Performance of the manager
After the timid, schoolboy errors of the Moyes regime and the tedium of Van Gaal’s possession procession, Manchester United fans were hardly unanimous in their verdict when Mourinho brought his impressive CV and increasingly glum features to Old Trafford.
On one hand, he was a serial winner, a sure-fire guarantee of success. On the other, the arch-pragmatist, his win-at-all-costs mentality coming at the expense of exhilaration. Five months later, we’re still not sure which version of Jose Mourinho is sitting in the hot-seat.
Does he know his best team? Has he lost his magic touch? The three-time Premier League champion has a few questions still to answer.
Team performance of the season
Hard to say. Leicester were more terrible than Manchester United were great in the 4-1 thrashing of the champions, while the narrow win against Tottenham only bordered on the United of old.
In fact, you probably have to venture back to the opening weeks of the season to find Manchester United’s most cohesive display of the Mourinho era, a 2-0 win at Southampton marked by Paul Pogba’s promising debut.
Star player
Pogba’s performances have been more glimmer than glow so far while, despite a prolific scoring streak, you still get the sense that Zlatan Ibrahimovic is syet to explode out of third gear despite a remarkable scoring record.
Therefore, among a squad hindered with inconsistencies, Ander Herrera’s perpetual reliability has shunted him to the fore. Tenacious and technical in equal measure, the Spaniard is the modern-day Nicky Butt rather than a second coming of Paul Scholes, but he is a crucial jack-of-all-trades in a midfield of hit-and-miss specialists.
Where to strengthen in January?
Centre-back. With Chris Smalling and Eric Bailly injured, the injury-prone Phil Jones and the red-card-in-waiting Marcos Rojo have been forced to step up to the plate. They’ve performed rather well in recent weeks, but a long lay-off never seems too far over the horizon. Luckily, however, Jose appears to have this one covered.
Likelihood of strengthening in January
If you believe the reports, United have got their January shopping done early. In December no less. According to The Guardian, Benfica’s Swedish centre-half Victor Lindelof will be a Manchester United player within the coming weeks, though how quickly he adapts midway through the campaign remains to be seen.
Challenges ahead
With Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham all heading into the New Year in front of Manchester United in the table, Mourinho has a lot of catching up to do. Instilling a bit more consistency, and building on the what we have seen over the last few weeks, wouldn’t be a bad start.
Predicted finish
5th. The strength in depth of their top four challengers means Manchester United may have left it too late to earn a return to Europe’s top table – at least this season.
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