Jose Mourinho: The vindicated serial winner
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Updated 25/05/2017 at 14:24 GMT
His methods may not always be that palatable but Jose Mourinho proved once more that he is a serial winner. Marcus Foley reports from Stockholm.
Jose Mourinho celebrates a treble.
Image credit: Eurosport
History will reflect generously on Jose Mourinho's first season at Manchester United. Three trophies (the Community Shield counts) in the bag and a return to Champions League football. Had United's board been offered that at the start of the season they would have taken it.
Yet, had the Red Devils not won the Europa League then his first season would have been a failure. Elite level sport is all about fine lines and Mourinho navigated those lines magnificently well.
It takes a manager of some clout to dismiss Manchester United's league campaign in the way that Mourinho has. Would such actions have been as widely accepted if they were enacted by David Moyes or Louis van Gaal? Almost certainly not.
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Jose Mourinho celebrates
Image credit: Getty Images
Yet that is why the club appointed Mourinho. The loss of United's 'swagger' has been lamented by some and revelled in by others. However, it might very well be back; the sheer brazenness of effectively sacking off the league campaign speaks of a man willing and capable of doing everything in his power that he deems fit to return United to the summit of English football.
Ajax boss Peter Bosz bemoaned United's tactics post match, saying their 'long ball' football made the game boring. He said afterwards:
We’re obviously disappointed. I didn’t see the Ajax team I’m used to, pressing and competing for first balls. We only got second balls. High pressing was difficult because Man United only played long balls and didn’t take any risks in the build-up. I thought the game was boring.
Criticism but also praise. Mourinho found a way to shut Ajax down. As he does. Only as he does. Is there any better manager for a one-off game of football?
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Jose Mourinho cuts a thrilled figure.
Image credit: Eurosport
Fair play to Ajax for remaining loyal to their principles but loyalty only gets you so far, as Mourinho is so aware. He is a winner by any means necessary and if those means are a long ball then so be it.
Every decision he made in the build up to the final was vindicated here, as was the team he sent out.
The oft-maligned Marouane Fellaini has his failings but his selection was a typical Mourinho decision: pragmatic and effective. He was a menace going forward and disrupted the flow of an impressive Ajax midfield in the other direction. It was far from pretty at times but that is exactly what was required. Ajax were the plucky, talented underdog but Mourinho has no time for romanticism - here he used Goliath to beat David.
Alongside him, Paul Pogba was colossal. It was a statement performance from the world's most expensive player. He led from the front, cajoling and demanding more from those around him. Captain Wayne Rooney looks likely to leave this summer and this was a captain's performance from the 24-year-old. A performance of such excellence on a night of such high emotion that he dedicated to the victims of Monday's attacks.
We know that things like this are very sad, all over the world: in Manchester, in London and in Paris, too. We had to focus because it was a very important game and we won for them and for the country. We played for England, we played for Manchester, and we played for the people who died.
Much is made of Pogba's jovial, marketable persona but it is underpinned by a resilience and determination. Emphasis is put on his technical brilliance and rightly so but here he was very much an archetypal Mourinho player. He put together a near-complete performance and did so in his first European final for the club.
For it was reflective of the game that Henrikh Mkhitaryan got the all-important second goal. Mourinho had selected him ahead of Anthony Martial and serial final goalscorer Jesse Lingard, and, truth be told, he was pretty abject until he found the back of the net early in the second half. It is said that winners make their own luck.
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Henrikh Mkhitaryan of Manchester United celebrates scoring the second goal to make the score 0-2 with team-mate Paul Pogba during the UEFA Europa League Final between Ajax and Manchester United at Friends Arena on May 24, 2017 in Stockholm, Sweden.
Image credit: Getty Images
This final saw this United emerge as a very Mourinho team: ruthlessly efficient. It has been a while since they were referred to as that. Last year's FA Cup win felt a little hollow - perhaps a consequence of news of Van Gaal's sacking was leaking before he had sat down for his post-match press conference.
Yet on reflection it has been a tumultuous first season at times. Mourinho has even said that this was the toughest season of his career to date.
His toughest season in his 23 years as a coach. Quite. Yet, he ends a season of transition with three trophies in the bag, and a side increasingly built in his image. He had the opportunity to win five trophies this season and he took home three.
What made this performance all the more impressive was what the city of Manchester and, by extension, its most famous export had been through this last week. No one would - or really could - have been surprised United had struggled under the weight of emotion following the harrowing attack on Monday. Yet, they stood up and showed a maturity and decisiveness that honoured their city.
Mourinho, United and its players have emerged from this final with their reputations burnished.
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