Manchester United’s first match since Jose Mourinho was fired went pretty well. Former super sub striker Ole Gunnar Solskjær came in as interim manager and the Red Devils played with verve and panache unseen in years, crushing Cardiff City.
Think Manchester United is enjoying life without Jose Mourinho?
In the club’s first match since firing the embattled, bitter coach, the Red Devils crushed Cardiff City 5-1, the first time since Alex Ferguson’s final match in 2013 that United scored five goals in a Premier League match.
Well, it was coming.
Jose Mourinho was finally sacked as manager of Manchester United. Manchester United’s form this season has been nothing short of poor, recently winning only two of its last seven games — one of the wins coming against bottom-of-the-table Fulham and the other against Champions League strugglers Young Boys.
Jose Mourinho is out of a job. After improving slightly on the work of predecessors David Moyes and Louis van Gaal, the horror of watching Manchester United attempt to play football was still enough to warrant his sacking on Tuesday. This certainly felt inevitable and there are a lot of reasons for the Portuguese’s dismissal, but the Jose Mourinho transfer spending at Manchester United is the easiest way to make sense of it all.
The Champions League Round of 16 draw results are in, and although we have to wait until mid-February to get started, some things are too tasty to be left on the back-burner for that long. Here’s a look at all eight matchups, and an incredibly scientific ranking of which ties get us all hot and bothered.
Spectacular. The round of 16 draw
Liverpool’s ceaseless hammering of Manchester United finally yielded a breakthrough during a seven-minute second half spell that saw Xherdan Shaqiri score a brace of heavily deflected goals, a just reward for outshooting their opponent 36-6 on the way to a 3-1 win.
In the end, it was a humiliating footballing lesson for Jose Mourinho’s side, and the only moment of respite for United was a terrible blunder from Alisson that allowed the Red Devils to stay level at 1-1 for 40 totally undeserved minutes.
On Wednesday, Jose Mourinho said his team scored four goals and tied 2-2. On Saturday his team scored four goals and won 4-1.
It’s a common refrain to say Jose Mourinho loves boring, defensive football. It’s mostly true these days, especially as he seems to favor long balls to big men in the box over any sort of technical play. His best results of the season (the win over Juventus springs to mind) have come via Route 1 football.
Manchester United and Arsenal’s 2-2 draw on Wednesday at Old Trafford was downright absurd at times. But given all the oddities in the Man U vs Arsenal highlights, one stands out as being a real missed opportunity for an inventive winner. And this match deserved a winner.
Referee Andre Marriner had a complicated match to officiate and whether you’re an Arsenal fan, Manchester United fan or a neutral, you probably don’t think he had a very good performance. Goal-line technology was called into use but you feel VAR would’ve aided this game immensely.
If you’re a supporter of Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus or Bayern Munich and you’re looking to distinguish yourself in 2019, look no further than this collaboration between adidas and EA Sports. These “Digital 4th Kits” are inspired by FIFA, and although they’ll be available for use in FIFA Ultimate Team, you can also cop the actual limited-edition jerseys from online club stores (retailing for $98).
Jose Mourinho likes to call himself the Special One and pump up his accomplishments. But right now, he’s just the Lucky One.
He’s lucky to have David De Gea in goal making otherworldly saves. He’s lucky to not have VAR in the Champions League or Premier League, helping his club score late goals. And he’s lucky that water bottles are not sentient beings who fight back.