The Warm-Up: More Mourinho magic as United get draw they need at West Ham
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Updated 11/05/2018 at 08:11 GMT+1
Manchester United's brilliant game management delivers a wonderful 0-0 draw at West Ham - while Arsene Wenger prepares to say goodbye.
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho and assistant manager Rui Faria
Image credit: Getty Images
FRIDAY’S BIG HEADLINES
Boring, boring Jose
On Wednesday night, Manchester City broke three Premier League records. Pep Guardiola’s side recorded their 31st win of the season, scored their 105th goal and won their 97th point. If they beat Southampton on the final day of the season on Sunday, they will become the first ever top-flight team in England to reach a century of points. They will have done so playing football from the future – the likes of which has never really been seen before.
On Thursday night, Jose Mourinho brought on Ashley Young for Alexis Sanchez to close out the final stages of the game and ensure his side got a 0-0 draw at West Ham which ensured they would finish in second place. In fact, United were securing their place in the record books too, just not for a reason they will shout about. Primarily because it goes against everything the club stands for and holds dear.
There are revisionists who claim that Sir Alex Ferguson’s United were never quite the freewheeling artists of attack they are sometimes painted to be, and there is some truth to that. But whatever means they chose to employ, they were always trying to *win*, even as the game went deep into Fergie time. Especially when the game went deep into Fergie time. Louis van Gaal became famous as a bore-draw specialist as the fun was sucked out of United in the post-Fergie wasteland but Mourinho isn’t far behind him if you look at their record in all competitions.
Back in October, following a 0-0 draw against Liverpool which was soured by his defensive tactics, Mourinho said something quite revealing:
It depends on what is an entertaining game. One thing is an entertaining game for fans, another thing is an entertaining game for people who read football in a different way.
Those feckless fans, expecting their team to score some goals and provide the highlight of their week in a 90-minute experience that offers them some escapism. When will they understand that putting 10 men behind the ball is a form of entertainment too? That there is unadulterated beauty in clearing your lines and leaving Paul Pogba watching wistfully as the ball flies over his head.
United are 19 points behind City in the table so Mourinho’s approach is not just cultural vandalism at a club like United, or at its heart just simply dull, it’s counter-productive too. No other team in history would have matched City this season but United could have got a lot closer. But somehow Mourinho’s style of football managed to deliver defeats to Huddersfield, Newcastle, West Brom and Brighton, amongst others.
Mourinho openly admitted that with 20 minutes to go against West Ham, United effectively settled for a point at Fortress London Stadium. As if David Moyes has created a team so competent that you have no chance of scoring against them with a quarter of a match remaining. In fairness, Joe Hart wasn’t in goal, which would have helped United's cause. Mourinho explained:
Any team that goes to this kind of match when you need something, to get some objective, you need to fight for that. The best way to fight for the point was to try to win the match and be safe which is what we tried. But when the game goes to minute 70, 75 you don't lose. You do the job, get the point, finish second and face the game on Sunday with a different perspective.
‘A different perspective’ would be an accurate way to describe how Manchester United’s fans and Manchester United’s manager see football. An FA Cup may yet salvage something from this season, but what of next?
Living in America
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Wayne Rooney of Everton celebrates after scoring his sides first goal during the Premier League match between Everton and West Ham United at Goodison Park on November 29, 2017 in Liverpool, England
Image credit: Getty Images
The Warm-Up already knew that America was the land of mindless consumption but our friends over the pond might want to rethink the whole capitalism idea after it emerged that Wayne Rooney could be joining DC United for a fee of £12.5 million.
Rooney’s representatives are said to have been in the US capital for talks over a deal until 2020 – if he does decide to move, then the forward will be walking away from the second year of his contract at his beloved Goodison Park after apparently growing frustrated with life under Sam Allardyce. Not surprising, when you consider he hasn’t scored a goal since December and was subbed early on in the Merseyside derby.
Taking a brief break from its forensic investigation of President Trump’s political, legal and financial entanglements and attempts to adequately explain the greatest threat to American democracy in decades, the Washington Post reported of a player who once had himself filmed being knocked out in his kitchen by Phil Bardsley:
D.C. first approached Rooney’s representatives last summer as he prepared to leave Manchester United after 13 seasons and 253 goals, but he decided to join Everton. The sides reengaged this spring and, three weeks ago, Rooney’s agent, Paul Stretford, visited Washington to meet D.C. officials and tour Audi Field.
If Rooney does move to DC then The Warm-Up hopes he embraces the local culture. Expect 75-tweet threads on the latest bombshell evidence of Russian collusion by the autumn. Sorry, fall.
IN OTHER NEWS
Congratulations to Liverpool for going the whole season unbeaten… in Mark Lawrenson’s Premier League predictions.
It’s a feat made all the more remarkable by the fact that Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham all managed to only lose one match – and that Liverpool’s unbeaten record was only good enough for fourth place.
Oh, and that they also went unbeaten last season.
Elsewhere, Brighton managed to hit the magic 25-point mark to stay up in a very top-heavy top flight.
It’s easy to point and laugh, this is Mark Lawrenson after all, but in fairness he did call the top six completely accurately.
PS. Don’t miss this goal by Shrewsbury’s Jon Nolan:
HEROES AND ZEROES
Hero: Arsene Wenger
All good things come to an end. All bad things too, in fact. The point is that things come to an end, and one of those things, on Sunday, will be Arsene Wenger’s reign at Arsenal. The ups and downs of his time in charge have been done to death since it was confirmed this season would be his last, after 22 years, and The Warm-Up has no intention of raking through them all again. We just want to say that football will be a much poorer place if the most erudite and interesting manager in the game – a man who dedicates his life to pursuing football as an art form and maximising the talent of the individuals in his care, as difficult as he found those twin aims in recent years - is not working next season.
Arsene, it’s been unforgettable.
Zero: Mark Noble
Just… what are you doing mate?
RETRO CORNER
Twenty-two years ago. The Spice Girls were blowing up. New Labour was just around the corner. And a quiet Frenchman strode confidently into Highbury’s marble halls to change Arsenal, and English football, forever.
COMING UP
The Championship play-offs get into full swing tonight with Fulham, who so narrowly missed out on automatic promotion, visiting Derby County. That’s on Sky Sports at 7:45pm.
Monday will be the first day in 22 years that Arsene Wenger is not in charge of Arsenal. Adam Hurrey will mark the occasion by writing The Warm-Up in the voice of Igor Stepanovs.
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