We've gone 20 matches unbeaten in the league.
This might be the worst unbeaten run in the history of football :(
I know it's frustrating when we don't win, but the football we play is much much more attacking than it ever was under LVG. Today we scored one goal, should've got another(the offside goal), hit the bar twice and created quite a few more chances. Fellaini had two shots from around the penalty spot that he skied, Rashford was one on one at the start of the match, Herrera had a great shot from range, Blind curled a free kick exactly to the top corner.
..and Zlatan with a good chance in the 1st half, waited too much and eventually got his shot blocked.
The finishing this season hasn't been very good but nearly everything else has been very good. And the thing about finishing is - it depends quite a bit on luck - most good players and average players score at a comparable rate from similar positions. Good teams that consist of good players just manage to create more chances. It's also widely known that we've scored quite a lot fewer goals than you'd expect from those chances on average. While on the other hand under Van Gaal we just didn't create a lot of openings.
I think it's really harsh to criticize Jose.
I can't believe anyone would want Van Gaal back.
Agreed to a certain point.
We should not criticize Mourinho for the style of football United are currently playing, especially as we should know it's hard for him to adapt, since he is also evolving as a coach, trying to somewhat change his style and make it more attacking.
What he could have done better are some choices of players in certain games, or his choice of playing with only one striker when we needed and could have afforded more bodies in the box. I also don't agree with his lack of turnover in some areas, especially in Cup games and especially in attack. At the same time, he shuffles the defence too much and I don't think that's a good thing to do, as the defensive line should be the part of the team with less changes. The defenders must get used to playing in the same line, but I don't remember us playing with the same defence for 3-4 consecutive games this season. If it were only for the injuries or fatigue than I could understand, but it wasn't.
José did the same also in the first part of the season.
Against Everton, we were OK tactically, especially in the 2nd half, so that is a game we cannot really blame Mourinho for anything. He also did the right changes and we started playing better. The only thing I would do differently is starting Martial ahead of Rashford. We know Rashford is not scoring goals lately, the game is very important and therefore it was logical to put Martial who has a higher rate of chance converting. We could have also played with Rashford on the right (I think he is better coming in from that side) and Martial left, so Lingard on the bench.
On the other hand, against WBA it wasn't so good, as Mourinho should know better that you cannot use "light cavalry" to bring down the walls of a castle. Zlatan was not available, so imo he should have moved Fellaini upfront along Martial, with Rashford on the wing. Instead, we played with only Rashford as a striker, Martial and Lingard on the wings, while WBA defended with 9-10 players.
We had the same problem many times this season, with all the games we drew and really should have won.
I think we're fine right now. Even if we don't make CL I think we're on the right track. But I think we will make CL.
I hope we will make CL, as it is of utmost importance for our progress as a team.
This Summer, Mourinho must make more clearance, find a central defender good enough to pair him with Bailly. Then, a holding midfielder and a winger, with Martial hopefully back to striker position and Rashford playing his part of games as well.