‘Man United need to sack Mourinho’

LONDON. — Manchester United need to appoint a new manager if they wish to return to winning ways, according to Adam Crafton of the Daily Mail.

Jose Mourinho’s side fought back from two goals down to draw 2-2 with English Premier League soccer strugglers Southampton on Saturday evening which extended Manchester United’s Premier League winless run to three matches.

The result capped a week where they drew 0-0 with Crystal Palace before scraping a 1-0 victory over Young Boys in the Champions League on Tuesday night.

In what has been widely regarded as another disappointing week for the 13-time Premier League champions, Crafton believes the accumulation of disappointing performances should mark the end of Mourinho’s two-and-a-half year tenure in charge.

“It’s the week that confirms that Manchester United needs to change their manager,” he told the Sunday Supplement.

“The theory was Mourinho’s pragmatism maybe gets them over the line over the course of the season. It’s now becoming clear if you can’t beat Crystal Palace at home, Southampton away, it’s as generous as fixtures you can get — Young Boys at home.

“Watching Manchester United now is an ordeal. You’re watching Mourinho on the touchline more for him than the players.

“The players aren’t offering anything generally. They have to make a change now really. I don’t think the fans are enjoying watching their team. Yesterday the first 20 minutes was as bad as anything I’ve seen from Manchester United since Sir Alex Ferguson retired.

“It’s a very dispiriting place at the moment. They were so far adrift of Manchester City a few weeks ago. Before that they seemed to have had a bit of a renaissance but since then it is back to where it was before.”

The Times’ chief football writer Henry Winter believes that the players should accept just as much responsibility for Manchester United’s demise as Mourinho and singled out “embarrassing” Paul Pogba as one example.

He added: “If you really want to understand Manchester United you have to look beyond Mourinho. You have to look at the squad and a player like Paul Pogba who is being paid a huge amount of money to represent one of the greatest clubs in the world with a huge history.

“He’s actually being given more of a platform by Mourinho in terms of expressing yourself. Pogba is not doing that. He was embarrassing yesterday. For a player of his ability who showed it at Juventus —whatever his relationship with Mourinho is —he still has to go out there and represent the club properly.

“The fans have been pretty supportive as well towards a group of players who are underperforming, underachieving and — at times — are an embarrassment to the shirt. They should be doing better.” — Sky Sports.

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