Man United can still achieve this big aim

When ‘The Special One’ arrived at the Theatre Of Dreams and faced the media for the first time, there was a lot of anticipation from the fans and players alike. They expected Jose Mourinho to talk with so much confidence and aggression about what he wanted to achieve at the club and they were not disappointed.

“It would be easy and even honest and pragmatic to focus on the last three years on the fact that we don’t qualify for Champions League and so on and so on and be quite pragmatic to say let’s work and try and be back to the Champions League, try and be back to the top four, try and be back to the Europa League. I prefer to be more aggressive and say we want to win,” were the sweet words uttered by Mourinho that beautiful Tuesday afternoon at Old Trafford. Only a manager with a lot of belief in himself and his squad can speak with so much confidence in his first press conference. I was impressed!

Fast-forward five months and Man United find themselves sixth in the Premier League table, four points adrift of fourth-placed Arsenal and a further 13 points off leaders Chelsea. This was certainly not what the fans were expecting. That ‘happy’ Jose Mourinho that spoke with so much confidence during his first interview is already looking very sad and frustrated down the touchline.

Mourinho and his charges made a bright start to the season by winning their first three Premier League matches and scoring six goals in total. Following that winning run, however, were frustrating draws against Stoke, Burnley, Everton and Arsenal. Man United were also dismantled and hammered 4-0 by Chelsea in October. These terrible results heaped a lot of pressure on Mourinho and he started looking for solutions to the problems.

The reasons for those struggles are not too difficult to work out. Mourinho continued to stick with misfiring striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic throughout the months of September and October despite his goal drought. This affected Man United a lot as they continued to draw and lose a number of matches after producing good performances.

Another reason for those struggles was Mourinho’s decision to keep playing the immobile Marouane Fellaini at the expense of experienced English midfielder, Micheal Carrick. Fellaini affected Man United’s attack by giving a handful of wayward passes and Gary Neville even called him “idiotic”!

However, Man United fans including me have a reason to be optimistic, with the club showing improvements of late and having recorded four Premier League wins in a row. Ibrahimovic is on fire, Ander Herrera is playing the best football of his career, Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo have formed a reliable partnership in defence, Henrikh Mkhitaryan has finally found his feet and Paul Pogba has been phenomenal.

If the players can keep up their current form and continue this excellent winning streak, then there is no reason why Manchester United can’t finish in the top four this season and even challenge for the title.

Jose Mourinho could become a happy man again!

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