When Jose Mourinho returns to Manchester United this week he should not be seeking to prove a point but rather to concede one. Jose’s Tottenham rebrand – and there’s always a rebrand – is about reconnecting with the aesthetic counter-attacking football of his Real Madrid and Chelsea teams; it's about humbly giving in to demands that he plays an expansive game following those tedious, congealed years in the Old Trafford dugout.
Mourinho knows he cannot park the bus on Wednesday and get away with it, not at the beginning of a project few Spurs fans actively support. The transition away from Mauricio Pochettino’s high pressing, high energy approach - or what’s left of it – will need to be gradual, if indeed Mourinho’s promise he won’t change the club’s tactics is just empty rhetoric. Certainly the busy Christmas period, with virtually no time at all on the training ground, is not the time to implement new ideas. We’ll have to wait until the New Year to find out whether Mourinho really has changed.
But the new manager might have chosen to attack United regardless. Mourinho is a pragmatist if nothing else, and the most pragmatic way to beat Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side this season is to go at them – to fight the mid-table players, not the badge. United are only dangerous when opponents hesitate, as Liverpool did in the 1-1 draw in October, but with such a listless central midfield are torn apart if confronted, as Jack Grealish showed in Aston Villa’s 2-2 draw on Sunday.
Villa ought to have won that match comfortably. Spurs, with Dele Alli on form, can turn similar territorial dominance into a statement win.
Manchester United - 13/8 | Draw - 12/5 | Tottenham - 8/5
Prices via Sky Bet and correct as of 0930 GMT on 03/12/19
Rashford and Martial breaking ahead of Aurier could be a prominent feature, and yet stretching the pitch in this way should only further give Spurs an advantage. An elongated pitch means yet more space for United’s under-stocked midfield to cover; Andreas Pereira and Fred are repeatedly overwhelmed, and any scenario in which the two formations are fanned out will surely benefit Spurs’ quick vertical attacking methods and Dele in particular as he drops into the number ten space.
The gulf in quality between the two sets of players, and the two managers, is stark. The only way United can prevent Tottenham from winning is if Mourinho overreacts to his side’s sloppy concessions against Bournemouth with a defensive line-up reminiscent of his days in the opposite dugout. In every other scenario, United's weak midfield and static attack will be outthought by a rejuvenated Spurs.
Mourinho couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity, a better opponent, or a better venue to cast aside his ‘park-the-bus’ tag and reinvent himself as the progressive Tottenham manager who was unfairly caught up in the crisis at Old Trafford. Mourinho, a master of the rebrand, will surely take this opportunity to go for the throat.
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