If Manchester United loses to Arsenal, Mourinho may be fired.
The whole of England probably wants him sacked.
He offended too many people.
Even within Manchester United, there is a lot of betrayal and separation.
He ranked first and Luo Wu ranked second.
But the two of them had to fight to the death.
Although in the five previous encounters between the two teams, Manchester United had an advantage of 3 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss over Arsenal. However, from time to time, Manchester United's performance has been good and bad this season, and Arsenal is now the leader of the Premier League.
In comparison, Manchester United is a bit miserable. After two consecutive games without a win, Mourinho's Manchester United has 6 wins, 4 draws and 4 losses. It has only scored 22 points in 14 Premier League games and is as many as 8 points behind the Champions League.
If they lose to Arsenal in the next round, Manchester United will be 11 points behind the top four in the Premier League, which means that Manchester United will basically miss the Champions League next season. In that case, I am afraid Mourinho will be fired.
In the last round, Manchester United drew with Southampton, who was in the relegation zone, and they will definitely not take it lightly against Arsenal in the next game. Manchester United has internal and external troubles, making it difficult to win. But the more this happens, the less Mourinho dares to lose.
win?
Has Mourinho thought about it for a long time and imitated Tottenham?
Tottenham's recent offensive power can be said to be the strongest in the Premier League, but in the end they lost to Arsenal's remnant formation.
This sounded the alarm for Mourinho again.
This has not killed Arsenal, how can Manchester United do it?
A skinny camel is bigger than a horse, and a rotten ship still has three pounds of nails.
He has basically chosen a more conservative approach.
But simply defending is not enough, Arsenal will rub him on the turf.
It must be a defensive counterattack.
What lineup to play?
He thought about it all night and finally decided to use 3421.
Then start training according to this formation the next day.
In the starting lineup, the goalkeeper must be De Gea.
On the back line, he chose Bailly, Smalling and Rojo.
The midfielder chose Dalot, Herrera, Matic and Darmian.
The attacking midfielders are Lingard and Martial.
The forward only played Rashford.
Then a substitute lineup was formed for offensive and defensive drills.
What makes Manchester United players very frustrated is that the main lineup actually focuses on defense, leaving the substitutes to attack.
Pogba was in the substitute lineup. When he learned that he could only sit on the bench, he was now covered in flames. He became the midfield commander of the substitute side, leading his teammates to blast the main lineup.
Indiscriminate bombing.
After half an hour, the main lineup had no chance to fight back.
Rashford, who was at the front, only got one chance to shoot, and he even doubted whether he was in the main lineup.
The mood is very low.
Although I got the starting position, the feeling of starting like this is really uncomfortable!
At half-time he found Martial in a sullen manner.
"What a piece of shit."
"If we play like this, we will be dead tomorrow."
"I really don't understand why the boss has to kick like this."
"How do I know?" Martial shrugged, looking indifferent, "Anyway, we just do whatever he tells us to do."
"Maybe the bad result is not a bad thing. But what is clear to me is that he absolutely does not want to lose. Not letting Paul start shows everything. He no longer trusts Paul."
Rashford nodded, "Maybe we should be more proactive?"
"We can do more on the offensive end and we can't play so cowardly, alas!"
At this time, Matic came over from the side.
"Don't be naive."
"If we don't play according to his tactics, the result may be even worse. Then we will still lose the game. Who is responsible?"
"So let's play according to his request honestly. Even if we lose, the responsibility is not on our side. The media and public opinion are terrible now. If you don't want to take the blame, just be calm."
Older players are still smarter. Matic, as a veteran player, has different ideas from young players.
This makes sense. Rashford and Martial looked at each other and fell silent.
They have a great future at Manchester United. There is no need to be rebels and cannot be pushed to the forefront of public opinion. That belongs to Paul Pogba...
Matic added:
"You have also seen what happened to Tottenham. They couldn't defend at all. So it is impossible to expect a few of us to defend from behind, so you have to run back to defend most of the time."
"You don't want to be ridiculed by that guy again, do you?"
That guy is of course referring to Luo Wu.
"Maybe Mourinho will be fired, but this is by no means a problem that he only faces, it is also a problem that we must face together."
"It doesn't matter if you lose any game, but you can't lose this one."
"Unless everyone has decided to lie down."
"But I, absolutely won't."
"This is at Manchester United!"
After Matic said this, he turned his tall back.
As for Rashford, do they listen?
He doesn't know.
He conveyed the message.
It was Mourinho who should have said these words, but he said it for Mourinho.
Mourinho has fallen out with almost everyone now, and no one may listen to him, but what Matic said may have a different effect.
Matic is an old player that Mourinho brought to Chelsea, and he can be regarded as his confidant.
When he was besieged on all sides, he was still secretly helping Mourinho...
After the change of sides, the main team still did not show any good offensive performance, but the defense was impeccable. Although the substitute team had several shooting opportunities, they were not a big threat.
At least defensively, it was a success.
After the training match, Mourinho gathered everyone in front of the tactical board.
There are small circles drawn on the tactical board, and there are three arrows tightly surrounding the small circles.
"We still need to increase our defensive intensity!"
"The circle is Luo Wu."
"My request is very simple. As long as he gets the ball in tomorrow's game, three players must attack it immediately!"
"If I'm not wrong, he will still be in the middle of the midfield tomorrow."
"We gave up the midfield and lured him up."
"The midfield and backcourt are on hold."
"Jesse!"
"Marcus!"
"Anthony!"
"When defending, the three of you have to surround him immediately so that he can't pass the ball well. After all, we put a lot of troops in the middle and backfield and won't give them any space to pass and receive the ball."
"You have to do your best like any defender."
"If you can do it,"
"I believe that victory will eventually belong to us."
No one expected that Mourinho would actually strengthen the defense and ask Lingard, Rashford and Martial to use themselves as defenders to form the first line of defense.
Mourinho's eyes flashed with cold light as he stared at these three guys.