Is there a Premier League side that would swap places with Manchester United right now? Perhaps with Fulham as the exception, it seems 18 other clubs will enter 2019 with greater optimism for what the New Year will bring. Even Huddersfield, second from bottom, retain hope. For United fans, what little optimism may have lingered before the trip to Anfield almost certainly disappeared by the time they made their return trip up the M62 on Sunday evening.
Jose Mourinho did his best to manage expectations once it became clear that he would not receive the expected backing in the summer transfer market. Since August, United’s ambition has been lowered with each passing month, from fighting for the title to scrapping for fourth. Even that now appears beyond them.
Mourinho inners… pic.twitter.com/6N2OBE0ANs
— Luccas (@txgliaficoo) December 18, 2018
After their most dispiriting Anfield defeat in years, few people were buying Mourinho’s proposal that the Red Devils were now aiming to finish in the final Champions League place. Whether Mourinho believed it himself is certainly debatable, but he could not say otherwise. Privately, he may well have written off season like so many of the supporters who watched the Liverpool defeat unfold ashamed but not surprised.
It seems the only people not pointing the finger at Mourinho are those who can squeeze the trigger in his direction. The United board have little appetite to change manager, that much is clear. They don’t need the hassle and they don’t want the bill that would come as a result of cutting Mourinho loose not a year after they chucked a lucrative new contract in his direction. Nor do they want the subsequent introspection over their role in the manager’s failings. If Ed Woodward and his cronies in the boardroom possess an ounce of self-awareness, then they would have no choice but to accept the charge of ‘naivety’ levelled at them by Gary Neville.
Mourinho by March 2019 after facing PSG twice, Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City once. pic.twitter.com/6g2vTtIJil
— Richie Makanaki¹⁰¹🇬🇧🇳🇬 (@baddmanrichie) December 17, 2018
History suggests the owners and board will only be pushed so far. When it became clear David Moyes and Louis van Gaal were costing the club the profits reaped from Champions League participation, they were shown the door. It seems most likely that Mourinho will only follow once that threshold for failure has been met, especially with very few obvious replacements waiting to step in.
When specifically might that time come? If the Red Devils maintain the same points-per-game haul, then they will finish the season on 58 points. If fourth-placed Chelsea also keep ticking along at the same rate they have all season, then they can reach that total by matchweek 27. That happens to be the weekend United host Liverpool at Old Trafford, a few days after the Champions League last-16 first leg against Paris Saint-Germain. United’s defeat at Anfield gave us a fair idea where they are heading this season and things will be even clearer after the return clash. Unless there is a dramatic and unexpected twist between now and then, Mourinho’s fate will almost certainly be decided by the time March arrives.
But in the short term at least, it seems Mourinho and United are stuck with each other. For vasts swathes of the dressing room, for those who haven’t lost the will to care, that is bad news. If Paul Pogba hasn’t already written off his United career for a second time, then the club’s persistence with Mourinho and the looming January transfer window will surely strengthen his desire to quit.