How Would Henrikh Mkhitaryan Fit into Jose Mourinho's Manchester United Plan?

Henrikh Mkhitaryan has been heavily linked with a move to join Jose Mourinho at Manchester United. Adrian Kajumba of the Mirror reported, "there is increasing confidence a deal for Mkhitaryan will be agreed, according to sources close to the negotiations." 

Assuming executive vice chairman Ed Woodward can pry the 27-year old Armenia international away from Borussia Dortmund, where would he fit into Mourinho's system?

The short answer is: in a variety of positions.

Other than his specific abilities—about which more later—Mkhitaryan is a remarkably adaptable footballer.

Under Thomas Tuchel, Borussia varied their formation a lot. In the Bundesliga and Europa League, they often played either a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 but occasionally experimented with a 3-4-3 or 4-4-2.

Mkhitaryan was one of the reasons they were able to do so. He played on the left and right of both Tuchel's 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1, played in behind the strikers, and even played left, right and centre across the deeper-lying midfield positions.

Notably—again in the league and Europa League—he either scored and assisted from every position in which he was played. But his most productive position was the one in which he was used most often, wide on the right in a 4-2-3-1. In the nine games he started there, he scored five and made six assists.

Compare that to his eight starts on the right of a 4-3-3, from where he scored twice and made two goals for his team-mates.

Fortunately, the position in United's attack that is most obviously in need of strengthening is the wide-right spot in a 4-2-3-1. Louis van Gaal played Juan Mata there for most of last season, occasionally opting for Jesse Lingard instead.

Neither tore up any trees.

In Mata's case, extended exposure has made it ever more obvious that it is not his position. His influence is limited by being stranded on the right, and he drifts inside when given the slightest prompting. His skill set is very obviously not that of a traditional winger, and United's attacks down the right-hand side suffered for it.

Lingard is a willing runner and has the capacity to score spectacular goals—as he showed to great effect in the FA Cup final—but his end product is nowhere near consistent enough. He managed just three assists in his 2,251 minutes of league and European football last season, one every 750 minutes played. 

So an upgrade is clearly needed, and Mkhitaryan's performances in Dortmund colours give an indication he could fit the bill.

Of course, the last time United bought a highly rated attacking midfielder from Dortmund, the story did not have a happy ending.

In the last season of his first spell in Germany, Shinji Kagawa scored 13 goals and provided eight assists in the league. He only managed six goals and six assists in two full league seasons at Old Trafford, where he never managed to command an automatic starting berth.

But while Kagawa's story is a cautionary tale when considering success in the Bundesliga to offer a guarantee of Premier League success, there are key differences here.

Jurgen Klopp's Dortmund was built around attacking through the Japan international, playing him strictly as a No. 10 and ensuring he was the heartbeat of the team. When first Sir Alex Ferguson and then David Moyes were reticent to do so with United's attack Kagawa's confidence and impact suffered.

Mkhitaryan is unlikely to suffer the same fate. His positional flexibility means there are plenty of roles available to him within the team and his primary position is not one where he would face tremendous competition for places, assuming no other players of his calibre arrive.

That could happen, of course. After all, it was the surprise signing of Robin van Persie that left Kagawa fighting with Wayne Rooney for a spot in the team.

But with the way the current squad is balanced, there is a very obvious place for Mkhitaryan.

And Mino Raiola, the player's agent, seems to be doing his best to make the move happen. On 19 June he said, per BBC Sport: 

"

It would be a sin to stop talking [about a move to United from Dortmund]. I am a positive guy. If I wasn't confident of reaching some kind of conclusion, I wouldn't try.

I am very proud Manchester United want him and the talks are being held in a good atmosphere, but at the moment Dortmund are still saying no.

"

Jurgen Klopp, his former manager and the man who brought him to Dortmund said of Mkhitaryan, per Manchester Evening News: 

"

There is no doubt in my mind that he is one of the most talented players in the world.

He possesses an incredible combination of speed and technique. There’s very, very few you can say that about.

"

Mkhitaryan added a telling analysis of his own improvements under Tuchel, saying:

"

With Klopp, he was a football madman: pressure and counter-attack.

Instead, Tuchel has changed our lives. Now we command the game and I have more freedom to attack. Thanks to him I now make myself more useful. Because of the changes I got a lot of confidence.

"

There is a hint there that perhaps the Armenian would be at his best for Mourinho in games against teams the manager expects his team to have the beating of.

The kind of backs-to-the-wall performances he asks of his players when he perceives them to be outmatched might not be the best fit for Mkhitaryan, although he is an outlet on the counter-attack, in spite of his own apparent reticence to play that style of football.

Mkhitaryan's three most potent attacking assets are his dribbling, his passing and his finishing.

Last season in the Bundesliga, he attempted an average of 4.7 dribbles per 90 minutes succeeding with 2.8 of them. Of players who made more than 10 appearances, only Anthony Martial attempted more at United—6.2, completing 2.9.

That puts Mkhitaryan's success rate higher than Marital's, though comparing across leagues is hardly comparing like-for-like.

His high rate of assists is unsurprising given his impressive key-pass average of 2.9 per 90 minutes, the eighth best in the Bundesliga last season for players with more than 10 appearances. That number is considerably higher than the 1.6 per game averaged by United's most creative performers last time out, Mata and Rooney.

He averaged 0.4 goals per 90 minutes from an average of 2.8 shots in the league, meaning he scored with around 14 per cent of his shots. For comparison, Rooney scored at a rate of 0.3 goals per 90 from an average of 2.7 shots, around an 11 per cent conversion rate.

So, a multifunctional attacker who favours the right wing and has proved his ability to dribble, pass and score—that sounds like a pretty perfect match for a big gap in Mourinho's current squad. Mkhitaryan should have no problems finding a place in the new United manager's plans. 

He would mostly play on the right of a 4-2-3-1, filling in elsewhere in the attack when needed. Assuming he can transfer his Bundesliga form to Old Trafford, he could prove a vital signing.

Advanced statistics per WhoScored.com.