Manchester United Fan View: Mourinho deserves all the credit

We have to accept that the knives are always going to be out for Jose Mourinho.

It’s not just because of his personality, which, even though he has mellowed in recent years, continues to provide endless headlines whenever he opens his mouth, but as the manager of high profile clubs like Inter Milan, Real Madrid and now Manchester United anything less than perfection is deemed disappointing.

Manchester City’s impressive saunter to Premier League glory, United’s diabolical defeat to West Brom that confirmed it, their depressing exit from the Champions League against Sevilla and the common consensus that he has spent hundreds of millions of pounds just to play a humdrum style of football have all combined and led to the assumption that Jose Mourinho can no longer be regarded as a top class manager.

There’s one major problem with this, though: Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United keep on winning when it matters. Sure, the complacent Premier League defeats to Huddersfield, Newcastle United and West Bromwich Albion and the harrowing performances against Sevilla and Bristol City prove that United are still well short of their ultimate goal.

But when United have been within sniffing distance of a final over the last two seasons Mourinho has made sure that they get there. Not just that, but he’s made sure that they win, too.

Saturday’s FA Cup victory over Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley wasn’t just the third semi-final that Mourinho has taken part in as Manchester United manager, it was his his third victory, too. United will go into the FA Cup Final against either Southampton or Chelsea on May 19 as favourites, but their inconsistency means Mourinho still has a job on his hands to cajole another victory out of his players.

United’s League Cup triumph over Southampton and their Europa League victory over Ajax last season showed that Mourinho still knows exactly how to deliver trophies, which United have been severely lacking in the post-Ferguson years. The Scot was always adamant that United needed to end each season with at least one piece of silverware.

A quick trip down memory lane reminds us that before Ferguson’s glut of 13 Premier Leagues he won a European trophy, the League Cup and FA Cup. Ferguson took six years to get those honors. Mourinho is on the cusp of claiming them in just 2.

Sure he has spent an awful lot of money during that time, but that’s simply the nature of the game nowadays. Especially for Manchester United, whose riches mean that they always have to contend with a hike in price.

City did indeed run away with the Premier League. But, if they win their remaining four games, United will end the season with 86 points, a 17 point increase on last season, the same haul Manchester City won the title with in 2013/2014, one less than Chelsea won it with in 2014/2015, and 5 more than Leicester City’s Champions acquired.

It’s not perfect. But, after now defeating Spurs, Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City in the last two months, and with their hugely impressive spine of David De Dea, Nemanja Matic, Paul Pogba, Alexis Sanchez, Romelu Lukaku and even Phil Jones and Chris Smalling excelling, Saturday yet again proved that Mourinho has instilled a winning mentality into his squad, which he still clearly wants to hone and improve upon over the summer.

So maybe, just maybe, United’s future isn’t quite as bleak as some would have you believe.