Manchester United 2016/17 season review: Was Paul Pogba a success, did Jose Mourinho fail?

ByDaniel Harris

Updated 06/06/2017 at 19:24 GMT

After finishing sixth in the domestic table and winning the Europa League, Daniel Harris takes a look at a topsy-turvy Manchester United season and rates the key protagonists.

Jose Mourinho and Paul Pogba.

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David de Gea

David De Gea applauds away fans

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A brilliant goalkeeper with reactions as absurd as can ever have existed, but this was not a vintage season: there were fewer shockingly inconceivable saves than usual and also more goal-costing errors. Nonetheless, United must do everything possible to hang on to him because any replacement, however good, would still be less good. And sending him to Madrid in exchange for Alvaro Morata and cash the club doesn't need would be borderline sectionable.

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Rating: 6

Sergio Romero

Sergio Romero of Manchester United looks on during the Premier League match between Southampton and Manchester United at St Mary's Stadium on May 17, 2017 in Southampton, England.

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Calling someone a fine number 2 doesn’t sound like much of a compliment, but Romero is exactly that, and it is. Even so, picking him for the season's most important games was ridiculous behaviour and allowing him to replace De Gea would be too.

Rating: 5

Antonio Valencia

Antonio Valencia has signed a new contract with Manchester United

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A cupboard on castors, Valencia remains the greatest rugby league player that never was, who should really have stayed in Wigan. But recently, he has developed into an excellent right flank, able to play down the entire length of the pitch and becoming United's most consistent player in the process. Nevertheless he still has plenty of improving to do: early in the season, he remembered how to cross before quickly forgetting again so, though he offered plenty going forward in terms of territory and presence, not enough actually came of it.

Rating: 7.5

Matteo Darmian

Manchester United's Matteo Darmian

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Nowhere near the required standard, and lacking any single outstanding attribute. He’s not fast, he’s not dominant, he’s not good on the ball, he’s not good in the air, he’s not especially smart, and he’s bloody useless going forward. A succession of abject displays raised the question as to how much worse Axel Tuanzebe or Tim Fosu-Mensah could possibly be, and though he was very good in the Europa League final, there is no excuse playing him ahead of them.

Rating: 4.5

Luke Shaw

Manchester United's Luke Shaw and Henrikh Mkhitaryan wait to come on as substitutes as manager Jose Mourinho looks on

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It’s hard to know exactly what’s what with him. He’s young, he came back from an awful injury, he has no experience of playing at a top club, and Mourinho is Mourinho. On the other hand he’s too comfortably upholstered for a professional athlete, he's had plenty and varied chidings, and may have got to where he is simply on account of his monstrous talent. It’ll be a shame if he doesn't get a proper chance to prove himself at United, but should that happen it’ll be mainly his fault.

Rating: 3

Ashley Young

Manchester United's Ashley Young

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Didn't do much before or after his inexplicable selection at Anfield but worth keeping around for his experience and dedication.

Rating: 4

Phil Jones

Manchester United's Phil Jones and Michael Carrick (L) celebrate after the game

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Excellent during the portion of the season for which he was fit, then he wasn’t fit, which at least gave him time to complete his PhD. His relative youth makes him worth keeping, but his uncanny ability not only to suffer but to invent injuries makes him unreliable as anything but back-up.

Rating: 5

Chris Smalling

Chris Smalling

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A strong rival to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the thick footballer who isn’t actually thick stakes, 18 months ago he looked to be ascending a level. But the lure of keeping down with Joneses proved too great, so he got injured instead and has been largely rubbish ever since. Although he was picked ahead of Jones for the Europa League final – a decision he fully justified – he is most at risk when a new centre-back arrives. If he does leave, it will spare the world the worst chant in football; for the record, its first two lines fail to rhyme with each other and bear no resemblance to the original version; it’s never acceptable to reference race in a football song; and Smalling is biracial. Dearie me.

Rating: 4

Eric Bailly

José Mourinho accompagne Eric Bailly, blessé dimanche lors de Manchester United - Swansea.

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Bailly is fast, strong and enterprising, but most of all, he is decisive; he doesn’t wait to be asked nor does he waste time making his mind up. Instead he gets in and he gets out, and unusually for a defender is also fun to watch, with a neat line in desperate interventions and casual violence. All the makings of a serious player.

Rating: 7

Marcos Rojo

Marcos Rojo

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Joining United because Thomas Vermaelen preferred to bestow dodginess and injury upon Barcelona was a good start. And he actually looked decent to begin with, a commanding performance at home to West Ham compensating for Paddy McNair next to him, and shepherding 10 men to a narrow win. But a succession of strains, knocks and misadventures at left-back meant that he lost momentum, leading Mourinho to advise that no-one would mourn his departure.

To his credit and credit rating, he decided to stay, and his chance at centre-back came away to Swansea – a day when United’s best run of the season began. So he kept his place and was very good, save a miserable cameo at left-back in the League Cup final. Fast, strong and unhinged, the raw materials for a decent defender are there, and he is also decent on the ball; the problem will come if a new man establishes himself alongside Eric Bailly while he rehabilitates.

Rating: 6

Daley Blind

Manchester United's Daley Blind

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Sounds like the worst newspaper ever, but is actually a fine utility man. Following a mistake against Manchester City in a game Mourinho’s tactics caused United to lose, he was not only banned from playing centre-back but excluded from the list of players supposedly available to play that position. Eventually, though, Mourinho was left with no option but to include the very same player who frequently did very well in the role the previous season, and Blind did not let him down. It is true that he is not especially athletic, but he reads the game well and is good on the ball – far too good to be just a deputy left-back, let alone Darmian's deputy left-back. The shame is that he was not used in midfield as an alternative to Michael Carrick, but remains an asset to any squad, the deluxe John O’Shea.

Rating: 5

Axel Tuanzebe

Alexis Sanchez of Arsenal is put under pressure from Axel Tuanzebe

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Not all young players who start well make it and not all young players who make it start well, but Tuanzebe has a great chance. Technically and physically he has all the tools, and just as importantly, the right temperament. On debut, playing out of position at right-back and given the task of marking Alexis Sanchez, he did an outstanding job despite the unarsed indolence all around him, and was equally good in his three subsequent outings. His progress next season will be a good test of Mourinho’s intentions regarding youth development, because he is good to go.

Rating: 6

Michael Carrick

Michael Carrick

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Alex Ferguson used to say it always took him a while to get going in a season, but that does not explain why he did not start a league game until November. His inclusion helped spark United’s best run of the season; suddenly, the defence had some protection, Pogba could move left to be given the ball in a timely manner, and the forwards had someone able to see and hit an early pass. Then, in January, he was hustled out of games by Liverpool and Hull so disappeared again, his days as a first-choice over.

But keeping him for another season was the right call; he knows how to train, how to prepare and how to win, and most importantly, how to play football. Mourinho will doubtless spend a nauseous amount of money this summer, and the majority of the associated tedium will revolve around attackers, but his most important signing – the one which will set his team’s tempo and decide how they play – is Carrick’s replacement.

Rating: 6

Marouane Fellaini

Jose Mourinho, Manager of Manchester United shakes hands with Marouane Fellaini of Manchester United during the Premier League match between Southampton and Manchester United at St Mary's Stadium on May 17, 2017 in Southampton, England.

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Perhaps United’s most reliable big-game player; what words those are to write of a voluptuous floor-lamp who in some ways epitomises the worst of the post-Fergie wildnerness years. And yet it’s still true. Fellaini scored the winner in last season’s FA Cup quarter-final and the first goal in the semi, then this season, made the equaliser at home to Liverpool, was key at home to Chelsea, scored the winner in the Europa League semi and played very well in the final.

None of which is to say that he should be in United’s first XI – of course he shouldn’t – but the idea that he has no place in the squad is demonstrably untrue. All Alex Ferguson’s successful teams had different options and players able to do particular jobs; players in whose regard the manager knew better than the fans.

Rating: 7

Ander Herrera

Manchester United's Ander Herrera during the warm up before the match

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The leading martyr of the Van Gaal hibernation, it was never entirely clear if his quality was relative or absolute. When a once-great team becomes crap, it can be tempting to cling to any cipher of hope, rather than recall that the standard is not Fellaini and old Carrick, but Bryan Robson, Paul Ince and Roy Keane.

Herrera is not as good as them, but is still improving. Because he understands the game, he speeds things up and makes those around him play better, a general in an era of few; he tackles, he fouls, he passes and he intercepts, offering leadership, focus and snide. It’s enough to be going on with.

Rating: 7.5

Paul Pogba

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.

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The best player in the team by an obscene distance, even if some experts would prefer United’s money to gather interest for the Glazers, rather than be spent on an elite footballer; an elite footballer who’d have been for the off within ten minutes of meeting David Moyes. After United lost at home to Manchester City, a game in which he was left marooned alongside Marouane Fellaini in a midfield two while City’s three darted around them, Jamie Carragher said he played like the best kid in the playground, mooching about doing whatever he fancied.

It was meant as a criticism but the reality is that this is one of the best things about him. His love of football is such that he plays with his mates in his spare time, and that spirit makes him special, along with his Inspector Gadget legs, Don Juan touch, and Pythagorean mind; there is no-one remotely like him. The trick, then, is a system which permits all of that; he can do a job in front of the back-four just as the ark of the covenant would work as a potty – there are just better uses for both.

Before Christmas he was used on the left of a midfield three and was great in nearly every game, as United enjoyed their best run of the season; could it possibly be that these three things are connected? Next season, after a proper rest and pre-season, in a better team, he’ll be the most dominant player in the league.

Rating: 8

Juan Mata

Juan Mata (Manchester United)

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Mata has now made 121 starts for United and it is not easy to recall many great games or, more properly, many great hours. In that respect he has been a huge disappointment, unable to find a position and unable to impose himself on the general flow of things. But he has still been a significant influence, scoring and creating important goals with greater regularity than most of the squad’s other attackers – “somebody with a natural instinct to play football,” said Mourinho after one such an intervention against Bournemouth. Bought as an artist, he has become a pragmatist, and though it’s hard to see him as a future first-choice, he remains extremely useful to have around.

Rating: 6.5

Jesse Lingard

Jesse Lingard of Manchester United

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Another player who is not the standard of those who’ve gone before him – consider Lee Sharpe, Ryan Giggs, Andrei Kanchelskis and Cristiano Ronaldo – not good enough to seize games, but more than good enough to facilitate those who do. His movement and energy are excellent, so too his attitude, but five goals in 28 starts is nowhere near acceptable, however useful and spectacular they may have been. Though he ought not to be in the first XI, he has more than justified his place in the squad, and was essential in the home game against Chelsea, United’s best performance of the season. He is also rated by Alex Ferguson, Louis van Gaal, Paul Scholes and Jose Mourinho, though of course yer da knows better.

Rating: 5.5

Henrikh Mkhitaryan

Manchester United's Henrikh Mkhitaryan celebrates scoring their third goal

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Though Mourinho probably did not exclude him for so long simply to be contrary, it was odd behaviour nonetheless. In United’s third game of the season, away to Hull, his introduction spurred a late surge which brought victory, but after their fourth against City, when he was coming back from injury and hampered by a foolish team selection against an opponent playing to its maximum, he was suddenly deemed useless.

This can only have been part of a long game, because the notion that he had nothing to give a team struggling for pace, guile and goals was preposterous. When he was finally allowed to return, he was brilliant almost immediately, but then spent too many other games doing very little, unable to find an acceptable bottom level; if not 7/10 or better, he is 4/10 or worse. However he is a properly talented player with form for significant second-season improvement, and in the meantime delivered some memorable moments and key goals.

Rating: 6

Anthony Martial

Manchester United's Anthony Martial celebrates scoring their second goal

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A wasted season. Undoubtedly, this is partly his doing – he doesn’t run hard enough or far enough – but on the other hand, Mourinho’s experiences at Chelsea, Inter and Madrid have persuaded him that the only way to succeed is by indoctrinating his method into a bunch of berserker automatons. This is not true.

Martial had proved himself a special talent under Van Gaal, scoring 17 times in a team specifically designed to make that as hard as possible, and his directness and invention ought to have been essential under Mourinho; few players in the league are as unpredictable when running with the ball. Instead, Mourinho insisted he could not wait six or seven games for rhythm to gather, a leniency granted to lesser talents with lesser track records, then left him out after an excellent performance against Middlesbrough before dropping him for a disappointing performance against Liverpool – even though he was surrounded by defenders whenever he got the ball. Then, before the Wigan Cup game, he was told that he would keep his place “if he plays magnificent”; creating two goals, one brilliantly, were not deemed sufficient.

At full-time in the Europa League final, he and Mourinho shared a happy embrace, exchanging more words than are usual in such circumstance; perhaps he was being reassured and inspired for another go, because United’s loss would be any other team’s gain.

Rating: 4.5

Wayne Rooney

Manchester United's English striker Wayne Rooney (L) jokes with a staff member

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Expertly phased out with minimum fuss, he is nowhere near as useless as some would love him to be; it is true that he sometimes looks like the soap opera star in a charity game, but that was true even when he was at his peak. The fact remains, though, that he’s not good enough to play for United as anything other than an impact sub, and will presumably leave in the next couple of months.

Rating: 5

Marcus Rashford

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - APRIL 30: Marcus Rashford of Manchester United and Jose Mourinho, Manager of Manchester United look dejected after the Premier League match between Manchester United and Swansea City at Old Trafford on April 30, 2017 in Manchester, E

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Started the season slowly but rattled through its vinegar strokes with typical alacrity. Few players are as likeable or as fun to watch, and he has everything necessary to become one of the world’s best strikers. Over the course of the season, his wide play improved, though he wasn’t and isn’t a better option than Martial; that he was picked there anyway is testament to his attitude as much as his skill. But really, he needs to play in the middle, and ideally with a partner; the formation that most suits him, and perhaps also Pogba and Mkhitaryan, is a diamond. It seems unlikely that Mourinho is cavalier enough to employ it, in which case he must score more; on top form, few in the league are better, but on less good days he is still obliged to deliver goals.

Rating: 7

Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Zlatan Ibrahimovic

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Not as good as he thinks he is, but still pretty useful; his certainty and personality were important for a squad lacking both, and without him United would’ve been in big trouble. He did, though, hold them back in other ways: his lack of movement made him too easy to mark and the team too predictable, while his finishing simply wasn’t good enough. Assuming he recovers from injury, he still has a use next season, but if the team is to develop, he can’t be a first choice never mind an automatic choice.

Rating: 8

Jose Mourinho

Jose Mourinho celebrates in Stockholm.

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There’s no getting away from the fact that in the league, he failed and failed badly; no manager in the world could have ended up lower than sixth with the squad he had. It’s true that he stopped trying before the end, to focus on the Europa League, but United could only have improved by a place, when they had no business finishing below that Liverpool side. But, on the other hand, he won two Cups, and given that no manager in the world could have won the league with his squad, that made his season a fair one, bettered only by Antonio Conte.

Mourinho bought well last summer, and over the course of the season gradually instilled some mental strength into his squad. In particular, they addressed games against Chelsea and Ajax like a team who knew exactly what to do to win, so expected to win, but this must now transmit from special occasions to the weekly grind.

United might have done better had he found his best team sooner and then stuck with it, rather than dropping certain players – Carrick, Mkhitaryan and Martial – at the first signs of trouble. He would also have done better to play Pogba in his best position at any cost – the best player in the team needs to be exploited to his maximum – and to solve the goalscoring issue. Fairly early in the season, it was clear that Ibrahimovic was not mobile enough to play up front alone and that Rashford was not prolific enough to play up front alone, but despite that, they were never deployed as a pair, with self-evident results.

Tangentially, the absence of set-piece skullduggery was also surprising. Perhaps this was stymied by the absence of single player able to take a corner, but even so, a way ought to have been found.

Next season will have to be better: United must not only challenge for the title, but also play more expansive football. Until March they did try to entertain and take risks, but too much emphasis thereafter was on picking teams to neutralise opponents. Of course this is important, but there is a balance, and a team with United’s attacking talents ought to push the pace in every game, whoever the opponent. Whether Mourinho can enable or permit that remains to be seen.

Rating: 7

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