Louis van Gaal believes Manchester United can still win a Premier League title. The ESPN FC panel think otherwise.
Manchester United have broken their record transfer fee twice in 2014, with vastly different levels of success. Juan Mata has rarely sparkled since his 37.1 million-pound move from Chelsea in January, but Angel Di Maria has been in impressive form, having been signed for 59.7 million pounds in the summer. Jose Mourinho, who visits Old Trafford with Chelsea this weekend, might have predicted how things would go.
Mourinho, of course, has coached both, and his perception of the duo tallies closely with their Manchester United performances. He struggled to appreciate Mata in their half-season together at Chelsea, believing the Spaniard was incompatible with his favoured system, and was happy to sell him to United.
Di Maria’s relationship with Mourinho at Real Madrid was complex, but he always performed on the field. “I always had a good relationship with Mourinho, until the last year, which is when he began to fall out with most players,” Di Maria said earlier this year. “He brought me to Madrid, and I’ll always be grateful.”
“He taught me many things, he made me grow as a player,” he said in another interview. Mourinho personally requested the signing of Di Maria when he took charge of Real in 2010, and it helped that Di Maria’s transfer was brokered by Jorge Mendes’ GestiFute agency, which also takes care of Mourinho’s business.
Jose Mourinho transformed Angel Di Maria into the player he is today while at Real Madrid, and pushed Juan Mata into the arms of Manchester United.
In Mourinho’s ideal world, GestiFute would have taken him to Manchester United, too. The opening page of Diego Torres’ book on Mourinho’s final season in Madrid reveals the Portuguese coach was distraught when David Moyes was appointed as Sir Alex Ferguson’s successor. A return to Chelsea was hardly a nightmare scenario, but Mourinho coveted the top job at Old Trafford, and the chance to enjoy Ferguson’s total control of a club, something he was denied in Madrid.
Two of his old charges, however, have signed for United. Mata and Di Maria are unquestionably top-class players — European Cup winners, playmakers and goal scorers, reliable, hard-working professionals — but stylistically they’re the complete opposite.
Di Maria’s style suits Mourinho and Manchester United, while Mata’s style doesn’t suit Mourinho and Manchester United.
But aren’t the styles of Mourinho and Manchester United considered very different?
Well, it’s a little more complex than that. Mourinho is regarded as a defensive manager, which is harsh given the rampant attacking evident in spells at Chelsea, and throughout his tenure in Madrid. Mourinho’s teams are counterattacking, he’s highly reactive and occasionally ludicrously defensive — see his Inter side at the Nou Camp in 2010, or his Chelsea side at Anfield earlier this year.
When things click going forward, however, his teams are tremendous to watch. Few who have witnessed the combination play between Eden Hazard, Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa would consider this Chelsea side boring.
Manchester United traditionally play a different type of game. It’s difficult to categorise Ferguson’s style at Manchester United concisely, partly because he evolved the side constantly throughout his 26-year reign. However, a straightforward, direct approach was generally apparent — Ferguson’s United were rarely about relentless possession play, the style of football that became dominant during the latter part of his managerial career. Even United’s ball-playing midfielders, like Michael Carrick and Paul Scholes, were instructed to get the ball wide, so United could cross into the box. United weren’t a patient side who waited for opponents to be dragged out of position; they battered them quickly, creating spells of pressure from the outset.
That’s the obvious stylistic difference between Mourinho and Manchester United. Mourinho’s teams naturally position themselves inside their own half, before pressing, winning the ball and attacking directly. For United, the reverse is more fitting — they force spells of pressure in the opposition third, then press high up and keep on attacking. They’re both forms of direct football, but the directness originates from different parts of the pitch.
Angel Di Maria has become an instant fan favourite at Old Trafford thanks to his electric pace and direct approach.
Di Maria, therefore, works in both systems. At Mourinho’s Real Madrid he was a wonderful counterattacker, providing a perfect blend of defensive discipline and attacking adventurousness, and most crucially, the ability to transition quickly between those two phases. Di Maria is often considered a winger, but in truth he’s always played deeper and narrower than that, and therefore was perfect for Mourinho, who required balance on the right to compensate for Cristiano Ronaldo’s advanced positioning on the left.
“[Mourinho] moved to a new position, to provide more sacrifice. I am very grateful to him,” Di Maria said last season. “He said that at Real I should be a forward who could also defend. I could not rest when the opponent attacked us … the Di Maria who began his career at Rosario Central, compared to the one now, tactically and technically, is another player.”
United are playing a different brand of football under Louis van Gaal, but the directness of Di Maria has resonated with the Old Trafford crowd. They’re not accustomed to players who naturally pass sideways, or players who slow the game. They like energy, speed, verticality in possession. Di Maria has all those qualities.
Mata, alas, is the opposite. He naturally plays at a slower tempo, calming the game and assessing his options before playing intelligent passes. That’s a typical Spanish quality, although Mata is more direct than the majority of his international teammates of recent years, and unlike David Silva or Andres Iniesta, for example, has an eye for goal.
Mourinho quickly determined that Juan Mata was not up to standard at Chelsea, and the Spaniard has yet to really catch on at United since his January move.
Mourinho couldn’t accommodate Mata, however, because of that sluggishness in possession — and his unimpressive defensive work rate in comparison to Oscar. “For better or worse, we had no relationship,” Mata admitted earlier this year.
At United, Mata’s goal-scoring contributions have been reasonably good — but United already possessed plenty of goal scorers. Mata’s actual playmaking ability has been less obvious, and when involved in passing moves, he’s been incapable of lifting the tempo. Another poor performance at West Brom on Monday means he’s not even guaranteed a place this weekend.
Mourinho has often had a certain “hold” over former players — whispering into Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s ear while the Swede was being instructed by his manager Pep Guardiola on the touchline; communicating with ex-Chelsea players shortly before facing them as Inter coach; advising Wesley Sneijder and Didier Drogba at Galatasaray, shortly before his Real Madrid side faced the Turkish side.
In recent years, however, he’s fallen out with more players — his relationship with Di Maria deteriorated, his relationship with Mata barely existed, and he won’t have been on the phone to either. This weekend, while both have had different experiences at the club Mourinho wanted to coach, they’ll be determined to make him suffer.