2016/17 was another turbulent season at Old Trafford. Although Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United qualified for the UEFA Champions League after winning the Europa League, their Barclays Premier League form left a lot to be desired. Manchester United finished 6th in the standings – a whopping 24 points behind league winners Chelsea. The team accumulated 15 draws and score only 54 goals (23 less than 5th place Arsenal and 31 less than Chelsea). To make matters worse, Manchester United lost Zlatan Ibrahimovic to season ending injury having scored 28 Goals from 44 appearances in all competitions. Mourinho will definitely look to bring in some goal scoring options.

Similar to last year, it will be interesting to see who leaves during the transfer window. Although Manchester United boasted the 2nd best defensive record in the Premier League, Mourinho is looking to further bolster his defensive line. As a result, Matteo Darmian, Chris Smalling and Phil Jones find themselves on the list of possible exits from Old Trafford this summer.

The only guarantee this summer is that Manchester United will be linked with plenty of players.

IN

Victor Lindelof (Benefica) £30.7m
Romelu Lukaku (Everton) £75m
Nemanja Matic (Chelsea) Undisclosed

OUT

Josh Harrop (Preston North End) Free Transfer
Regan Poole (Northampton) Loan
Kayne Diedrick-Roberts Released
Faustin Makela Released
Wayne Rooney (Everton) Free Transfer
Adnan Januzaj (Real Sociedad) £9m
Sam Johnstone (Aston Villa) Loan
Dean Henderson (Shrewbury) Loan
Timothy Fosu-Mensah (Crystal Palace) Loan
Guillermo Varela (Penarol) Undisclosed
Cameron Borthwick-Jackson (Leeds) Loan
Matty Willock (FC Utrecht) Loan
Andreas Pereira (Valencia) Loan

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The match changed early on when West Ham’s Sofiane Feghouli received a straight red for a challenge on Manchester United defender Phil Jones. This forced the Hammers into a spirited defensive effort. They kept United at bay for 63 minutes until second half substitute Juan Mata opened the scoring. United sealed the game in 78^th minute with a Zlatan Ibrahimovic strike even though replays showed he was in an offside position.

A few talking points…

David De Gea the difference

The final stats showed Manchester United dominated the game with 64% possession and 13 shots on goal to West Ham’s 8 but anyone who watched the match would have seen that West Ham was in the game until the final minutes. United’s first goal came a few minutes after Michail Antonio failed to get past De Gea with a one on one opportunity. If not for the heroics of, the final result could have been a lot different. De Gea also saved a Manuel Lanzini shot in the 44th minute to keep the sides level before halftime.

 Return of Manchester United Magic

2 days after Manchester United scored 2 goals in the last 10 minutes of the game, the key refereeing decisions went their way in this match. The return of anything close to “Fergie Time” would be a welcome site for any Manchester United fans. These are still early days, but optimism is back in the red half of Manchester.

Manchester United streaking

Don’t look now but the Red Devils have now won 6 in a row. This streak dates back to a December 11th win against Tottenham. They also extended their unbeaten streak to 11 games. United last lost on October 23rd against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

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I find myself in a strange place with the rumored hire of José Mourinho on the horizon. I have the utmost respect for his coaching record but I must admit that I am not a fan of the man. The simple fact is he is a former Chelsea manager (2 times over as a matter of fact). This is a man that has helped shaped Chelsea history and made them into a premier league force. I was always worried facing this team even with Sir Alec Ferguson at the helm.

I cannot argue that he is a winner though. He is exactly what Manchester United needs in my opinion. There has been an outcry this season about the boring nature of the football played under Louis van Gaal. While I agree that the football was uninspiring at time, I believe that the “boring football” was just used as another reason to sack van Gaal. Had van Gaal’s boring football produced a string of 1-0 victories that propelled the club to the title, “boring football” would be an afterthought. At the end of the day, results matter most. Louis van Gaal’s team did not produce results expected of a Manchester United outfit.

With the sacking of van Gaal, José Mourinho is in pole position to secure the job. Many fans and pundits alike have labelled Mourinho as boring as well. This is due to the fact the Mourinho is known to play a very defensive brand of football in the big games. I have no issues with this. Sir Alec Ferguson was very conservative in big games as well and fielded teams that reflected that approach (Park Ji-Sung and Darren Fletcher featured heavily in big Champions league games). Once again, results trump style here.

A further look into some basic statistics show that Mourinho led teams have shown a propensity to score goals. The 2015/16 version of Manchester United scored only 49 goals in 38 premier league games. They failed to threaten the opposing goal in too many games.

Check out this great article about José Mourinho from sky sports “Is Jose Mourinho really a defensive coach who doesn’t trust youth?“

Just to add to Adam Bate’s article here are some more numbers that show the scoring output  during the premier league season by Mourinho teams .

During José Mourinho’s first stint in the premier league from 2004-2007, Chelsea averaged 69 goals scored per campaign. Manchester United averaged 71 goals.

* José Mourinho’s left Chelsea on December 17th 2015.  Chelsea outscored Manchester United in both 2014/15 (Louis van Gaal’s first season in charge) and 2013/14 (David Moyes & Ryan Giggs).

For what it’s worth, I would have loved to see Mauricio Pochettino at the helm  of Manchester United.

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