Manchester United won 4-2 against Watford at Vicarage Road last night and firmly kept the pressure on league leaders Manchester City. While the scoreline suggests that United last a pretty easy outing but in reality, it looked as if the Hornets might just claw back into the game and snatch a draw.
This was in no ways a complete performance from Mourinho’s side and there are still a few unanswered questions that the manager needs to solve quickly.
SHOULD LUKAKU BE DROPPED?
Romelu Lukaku started his Manchester United career in fine fashion – netting 10 goals in 11 games. But since then, the Belgian looks to have hit a roadblock and the goals has drastically dried down for him. So much so that a large section of the United supporters have started launching verbal attacks on him. While Mourinho has claimed that the striker is an immediate first team name but we think the Portuguese manager might quickly change his stance.
You see, Mourinho made this statement a few weeks ago when Lukaku was his only high profile striker but now things are different. Zlatan Ibrahimovic has made himself fit and has already started a couple of matches on the bench. So we feel that the door is quickly closing in on Lukaku. If the Belgian can’t get back into goalscoring form then Mourinho will definitely not hesitate to drop him to the bench and go ahead with Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
IS LINDELOF FINALLY LOOKING LIKE A WORLD CLASS PLAYER?
When Victor Lindelof joined United in the summer everyone thought that the former Benfica man was going to be an immediate success. Unfortunately, though things have panned out completely differently. The 23-year-old’s appearance has been limited to club and European games and Mourinho has been clearly hesitant of starting with him in the league fixtures – up until now.
But now the manager has once again found himself short of defenders. First choice defenders, Eric Bailly and Phil Jones are both out with injury while Rojo has just made himself available after a long injury layoff. Thus Mourinho had no other option but to start with Lindelof at the back. And in Tuesday’s game against Watford, the centre-back produced a very calm and authoritative performance. He looked much more confident on the ball as well as of it. He made some good interceptions and also was very good at distribution from the back.
Yes, he still has a long way to go before he can solidify his place at the back but clearly, these constant run-ins have been helping him gain much more confidence.
SHOULD MOURINHO OFFLOAD IN JANUARY?
Ashley Young played in the left-back role against Watford and ended the match with a fine performance as well as two goals against his name.
And now it looks as if Jose Mourinho has finally settled in on a first choice player in that position. When you come to think of it, the manager currently has four players who can play as a left-back. Young, Blind, Darmian and Luke Shaw can all play in the area of the pitch but out of these only two of them have featured heavily this season. Mourinho has opted to use both Young and Blind for the games while Shaw and Darmian have just warmed the benches.
So we feel that Mourinho should definitely try and offload a couple of these left-backs during the January transfer window in order to free up some space as well as lower the wage bills for United.
