^Love it. He (Alexis) was given total freedom of play at Arsenal, no tactical instruction whatsoever but to just play his individual game and see what happens. And to be fair, he is a player that has that ‘one moment’ ability to change things. However, try shoe horning him into one position, give him duties and it seems to seriously tip the team’s balance.
No way Pep would have been starting him like this.
Well, Rashford can play RW and CF, Martial can play CF, and Alexis can play CF. Probably would be best with an interchanging frontline of those three but under Mourinho no chance that’s happening lol.
Given Mourinho’s struggles to coach good attacking play (hilarious seeing the way United builds up play at times against Sevilla yesterday-- reminded me of 15-16 Arsenal under Wenger, no idea of how to build up through midfield so run out of ideas and just launch a ball in at the target man with no one near him to do anything with it even if he is extremely lucky and able to control it or direct it somewhere in the first place), I think the Alexis signing was definitely worth it, tbh. He needs players like him who will force the issue offensively and will create things themselves. The only chance I saw from United yesterday was the pass to Lukaku from Alexis that Lukaku really should’ve finished.
Anyways, much like Arsenal fans grasping at straws for what ails us, whether the 3-4-3 was the panacea or then the return to the 4-3-3, or Lacazette not being pacey enough and Auba solving that, or Alexis not being teamplayerish enough and Mkhi solving that, to early returns on Auba being a disappointment etc. etc. etc., United fans should look to the constant factor in their shit play: Mourinho.
It’s as if Mourinho bought Sanchez, not because he needed him, but he didn’t want him being Wenger’s best player, or going to Man City and making them even more entertaining.
Mourinho and flair players don’t seem to go together.
He prefers more of a Matic or Pogba type player, who are efficient, hard working, and very good at doing the job they are supposed to do.
Just been reminded of my favourite thing from the first leg – Klopp’s comment after:
“We won 5-0, but only because we scored with virtually every chance we had. If we hadn’t and if Porto had scored their two chances, the result would have been different.”