EPL 2016/17: Manchester United hierarchy believes Jose Mourinho's struggles caused by Louis van Gaal's mistakes
The Manchester United hierarchy reportedly believes that the problems faced by manager Jose Mourinho are because of the mistakes former manager Louis van Gaal had made during his tenure at the club.
Even though United’s results so far this season are worse than what they had achieved under David Moyes and Van Gaal in previous years, the chiefs at the Manchester club are certain that the team’s performance and playing style has changed for the better under the Portuguese.
With the draw against West Ham United this past weekend, United are sixth in the table with 20 points whereas they had 22 points under David Moyes in 2013-14. In the one and a half seasons van Gaal was at the club, the Red Devils had 22 points in 2014-15 and were second with 27 points last season in as many games.
According to a report in the The Daily Telegraph, the bigwigs at the club have full faith in the 53-year-old’s abilities to turn things around and undo all that their former Dutch manager had implemented at the club. They are willing to give the ‘Special One’ time as he has the tough job of rebuilding a team that never really recovered from Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement.
In the 14 games that they have played so far in the League, they have managed to score just 19 goals – a tally that is less than any other club in the top seven, including West Bromwich Albion.
United have struggled to net goals in the League repeatedly. While they have dominated possession and played well in most of their matches, their inability to score has resulted in four draws in their last five matches.
With no real sting in their attack, United have also struggled defensively. They have conceded a total of 16 goals so far, four of which came from Chelsea, making it the second highest number in the top six barring Liverpool who concede a lot but also have the attacking power to negate their defensive weaknesses.
Despite these apparent problems with United’s results, the chiefs seem to be concentrating on the larger picture and are in no hurry to give Jose Mourinho his marching orders yet. However, the team is in for a tough time as they are slated to meet Tottenham Hotspur in a league fixture this coming weekend and it’ll be interesting to see how well Mourinho tackles this new challenge.