3 Quick Fixes for Jose Mourinho to Make at Manchester United

Manchester United's relative malaise cannot be entirely solved by quick fixes, but if Jose Mourinho is announced as manager in the next couple of days, there are certainly some immediate changes he can make which will benefit the team.

There are deep structural issues that need to be addressed at the club in terms of the long-term strategy. Having been embedded in the single-manager culture, United now find themselves in a position where it is likely they will have to change their coach on a regular basis, so ensuring there is some high-level thinking behind that process will be key.

However, in the short term, there is much that can be done to improve on-pitch matters.

After all, Louis van Gaal's reign, while it ended on a high note with his players lifting the FA Cup, was fundamentally defined by disappointment and, frankly, boring football. United's home record in 2015/16 in the league may look great on paper—they won 11, drew five and lost two. Objectively, that is hard to argue against.

Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

From a subjective perspective, though, the games that were genuinely fun to watch could be counted on one hand. Stoke, the second half against Liverpool in the league, the 3-2 defeat of Arsenal and the final 45 minutes of the season against Bournemouth: That pretty much sums up the highlights.

Next season, Mourinho must make a difference.

Make United fun to watch at home

There is a preconception that the ex-Chelsea boss is a bus-parker, a defensive manager who seeks to break up opposition play rather than allow his own teams to express themselves. As Michael Cox wrote for the Guardian, this is somewhat of a myth: 

"

Even his most defensive sides, the Champions League-winning Porto team of 2003-04 and the Chelsea side who recorded back-to-back Premier League titles in the mid-2000s, were capable of thrillingly direct counterattacking football which produced wonderful goals, not to mention winning plenty of trophies.

Since then, Mourinho has become more adventurous. His Internazionale treble winners of 2009-10 are remembered for their bus-parking exercise at the Camp Nou, but in the first leg they brought their Serie A game - scintillating attacking football - to outplay Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona. Mourinho’s Real Madrid, meanwhile, outscored Barça in two of his three La Liga campaigns, and his Chelsea title winners of 2014-15 showcased rapid combination play in the final third, particularly before Christmas.

"

Before the turn of the year in that last title-winning season, Chelsea averaged 2.66 goals per game at home in the league. Even by the end of the season, when the Blues had tightened up to ensure they ground out their title win, they averaged 1.89.

In the past season, United averaged 1.42. Of course, no one would have complained had the Red Devils tightened up to ensure a league championship win. Sir Alex Ferguson's last season in charge saw a great example of this.

Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Between the start of the 2012/13 season and the beginning of January, a Robin van Persie-inspired United scored an average of 2.8 goals per home game. Between January 1 and the end of the season, that number was down to 1.88.

Context is everything here—once United had raced out of the blocks and put themselves in contention for the title, it did not matter if the matches got a little less thrilling. That was obviously not the case under Van Gaal

The Old Trafford crowd would love to see the odd 5-0 or 6-0 win over weaker opposition, the kind that seemed impossible under Van Gaal but have always been part of Mourinho's stock in trade.

His brand of muscular counter-attacking football will be a better fit for the home crowd than the static, plodding possession football Van Gaal served up.

Improve the confidence of key players

In a September 2013 interview with BBC Sport, Zlatan Ibrahimovic said of Mourinho:

"

When I got to know him, he was amazing. He dragged things out of me that no other coach had done before. When I played I felt like a terminator, I felt so confident under him.

When he had his talk before the game, he made you feel from being a cat to like a lion. When I came out I was so confident in my game. The way he was, the personality he had, we just clicked. There was no question of arguing with him. Everything was flowing in a positive way. 

"

How Memphis Depay could do with a manager making him feel like that.

Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

In contrast, Daniel Taylor of the Guardian wrote on Sunday:

"

It is the least watchable United side in memory and there are numerous stories about how, collectively, the players’ respect for Van Gaal eroded in the process.

One example comes in the form of Van Gaal’s "evaluation sessions" the day after every match when the Dutchman could be so outspoken in his criticisms - "he would crucify players in front of each other," according to one source - the two most senior players, Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick, went to see him to air their concerns that it was damaging for morale and, in effect, a self-defeating exercise.

"

Ander Herrera has looked like a shadow of himself this season. Wayne Rooney and Juan Mata both endured wild swings in form. Morgan Schneiderlin is another good example of a player who looked less than himself in a United shirt. Of course, Angel Di Maria's performances slumped badly over the course of the 2014/15 season.

STEVE PARKIN/Getty Images

None of that is entirely the manager's responsibility, but if Mourinho can find a way to improve the performances of the talented players in United's squad who have not been at their best under Van Gaal, the team's output should see a significant uplift.

Introduce some tactical flexibility

Mourinho is a pragmatist. He is a coach whose teams set up to brush aside weaker teams and to counterpunch better teams. Cox again: 

"

Generally, Mourinho’s sides play perfectly exciting football throughout the majority of a season, but in big matches - particularly in Europe, and towards the end of a campaign - become more cautious. This does not differ significantly from Sir Alex Ferguson’s approach during the final decade of his tenure at Old Trafford, when United’s purposeful, high-intensity football would give way to reactive, counterattacking displays against elite opposition.

"

Van Gaal's side played the same way in almost every game for the first two-thirds of the past season. They finally opened up with the switch from 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-3/4-1-4-1 that fans and analysts alike had been crying out for all season. However, the change came too late, too reluctantly. It did the job in the cup, but the damage had been done in the league.

Mourinho can and should bring a flexibility that Van Gaal badly lacked. Sunderland and Manchester City should not necessarily be afforded the same tactical treatment.

The second and third of these quick fixes will play into the first. If he can achieve that, he will get the crowd on board—there are plenty among the United faithful with significant reservations about his appointment.

However, if he can keep the worst excesses of his behaviour in check and bring positive results, he could quickly rebuild the kind of siege mentality that was the norm under Ferguson.

There are players to be bought and sold and plenty of challenges ahead, but if he can increase key-player confidence, bring some tactical flexibility and make the Red Devils fun to watch at home again, Mourinho will have a good platform on which to build.

Custom table data and statistics courtesy of Statto.com.