Paul Parker: The most important thing for Mourinho is not losing to Chelsea

People might have been shocked by the result against Sevilla last night, but I wasn’t surprised. When I saw the team before the match, I thought to myself, “this has got 0-0 written all over it”.

This is Jose Mourinho’s ethos. His teams are intent on stopping the opponent doing any damage, rather than putting the priority on attacking with his own players. We have seen this from how United have played against the top sides in the Premier League. However, Sevilla had chances.

Manchester United have had great goalkeepers in the past, and what was required of them was to stay focused in long stretches of games to be ready for the next save, because so much of the time United kept the other side on the back foot. Their current ‘keeper has a different task.

David de Gea is being worked like a goalkeeper of some of the teams below United in the league. The best player at United is usually a forward, but at the moment, last night the Spaniard was by far the best performer, and that has usually been the case over the past few seasons.

It is easy to write about Paul Pogba and Mourinho being at odds with one another, but the likeliest explanation is that Pogba is being rested for the game between United and Chelsea at the weekend. It’s a positive thing for United that they were able to rest him, though that plan was curtailed when he had to come on after just 17 minutes following Ander Herrera's injury.

The most important thing for that match against Chelsea is that neither side can afford to lose. You can tell this is how United play against the top six. That was how they lined up against Manchester City, and at Spurs, but they were undone by a brilliant plan from Mauricio Pochettino.

Against Barcelona, Chelsea’s best player was Willian. It’ll be interesting to see if Antonio Conte tries the same thing again, playing with Eden Hazard up front, because United’s back four is vulnerable at the moment.

In the past, United had some great central defenders. They had Nemanja Vidic, Jaap Stam, Ronny Johnsen and Rio Ferdinand, and when I was at United we had Gary Pallister and Steve Bruce. Ferdinand grew into the role, but the position of central defender for Manchester United is one that needs maturity and experience. With Chris Smalling and Phil Jones, we're giving them the benefit of the doubt for now, and they are also playing alongside converted full-backs in Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young, which may make things tougher.

When I played right-back for United sometimes I wouldn’t even see the opposition full-back, because they’d be too busy worrying about Andrei Kanchelskis. United will need to get the best out of their attack in order to make sure that there is less for the defence to worry about.

They can possibly make that change this season. They have one of the best players in the league in Alexis Sanchez, and he will do damage if they let him play as he did at Arsenal. He recovers so many balls in the final third, and can be trusted to do his defensive work. It doesn’t matter where he plays, whether on the left, the right, or through the middle, if he has a free role then he can be a danger. When he’s not scoring, he’s creating, and vice-versa. Pogba, too, can be a threat.

Manchester United are blessed with a forward line packed with creativity and forwards, and if Mourinho can exploit the talents of those players they will be able to focus on their strengths rather than worry about any weaknesses at the back.