Paul Parker: 16 years and Jose Mourinho still hasn’t learnt to lose with dignity

There are three guarantees in football: players will make mistakes, referees will make mistakes and managers will make mistakes.

Unfortunately, Jose Mourinho refuses to accept that final point. After 16 years as a manager, he still hasn’t learnt to lose with dignity – shifting the blame for everything onto referees and his players. I’ve been concerned from the moment Manchester United took him on and his scathing remarks about Luke Shaw only make me more concerned.

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Mourinho thinks he can go around and say what he wants – because of his name and what he’s achieved – and the players will accept it. Newsflash: they won’t. If it was Sir Alex Ferguson, the players would bite their tongues, but even he never went to the press and pulled out one player. You would have thought Mourinho had learnt his lesson from Chelsea.

There’s a lot of worried supporters right now. They know the history of the man. Sure, there are some who believe Mourinho will win the Premier League in his first season, but there are many more who fear déjà vu and Chelsea round two. Why did they take on someone who upset so many people at Stamford Bridge?

United had a great start to the season… allegedly. But who did they play? Bournemouth and Hull are games you would expect them to win with 10 players. Four years ago, everyone would have predicted United to win those games at least 3-0.

Then they got absolutely smashed when they played the first team of any note. No one would have been at all surprised if Manchester City went in 4-0 ahead at half-time in the derby. The scoreline flattered United. They were smashed.

There’s a danger United will finish outside the top four again – there’s a huge gulf between them and a few sides in the Premier League. City, Spurs and Liverpool have shown how to control games, but United are just nicking goals and not imposing themselves against lesser teams. When you see them against Watford at the weekend, you get a little disturbed. Their three wins are deceptive.

Everyone has been talking about Henrikh Mkhitaryan for a long, long time. He made his name at Borussia Dortmund as a No.10. So why did Mourinho decide to start him out of position in the Manchester derby, then punish him by substituting him at half-time?

I’m shocked that a manager of his alleged calibre is putting square pegs in round holes. It’s happening on a regular basis and Louis van Gaal did exactly the same. Are you not allowed to drop Wayne Rooney because he’s England captain? Every single fan is laughing at the situation. Mkhitaryan must be thinking: ‘Rooney isn’t fit to lace my boots… he can’t even run.’

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Mourinho previously vowed to never use Rooney in midfield. Regardless of what the teamsheet says, Rooney is playing in that exact position. Mourinho hasn’t told the truth. If you’re going to play Rooney, it has to be upfront. Zlatan Ibrahimovic isn’t being asked to run in behind, or into the channels, so Rooney could play this role – not holding hands with the defensive midfielders.

And what about Paul Pogba? He can’t be held accountable for the current results. United have to get people around him to extract the best from him. Bring back Bastian Schweinsteiger. The man’s a World Cup winner and has won numerous amounts of medals playing as one of the best central midfielders in world football. He could do a good job in a deeper position, allowing Pogba the freedom to play. Currently Pogba feels obliged to do everything because he doesn’t trust what’s around him.