
Although Manchester United picked up a badly-needed 1-0 at home to Zorya Luhansk last night, the performance was far from polished.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic came to Man United and manager José Mourinho’s rescue with the winner in the second half, but Mourinho was clearly frustrated with the overall performance of his side.
The manager’s sense of frustration was at its most intense when, angered by the actions and directions of his coaching staff, he had some choice words for assistant manager Rui Faria and coach Giovanni Cerra.
The problem started when Mourinho could see that Zorya were lined up in a way that was different to that which he had been expecting, the inaccurate information supplied to him by his coaches.
Mourinho’s fury was also in relation to tactical instructions from his backroom team, at one point beckoning both Paul Pogba and Faria over to him to discuss the pre-match instructions for the midfielder.
Following this, he went to the technical area to have another headed exchange with some more of his staff, before making some changes to the tactical dossier.
All of this was captured (as can be seen above) by live television cameras, in what is arguably another unnecessary display of power from Mourinho.
The manager explained his actions when he spoke to the media following the win:
“It was set pieces, organisation, they changed their team before the game.
“Paul Pogba was a bit confused with the changes and obviously I want my assistants to take care of all the details.”
Manchester United went on to win the game, but Mourinho will not be getting carried away, just as he refused to panic when his side lost three games in a row:
“I was not depressed by the three defeats and I’m not over the moon after three victories. We have another game on Sunday [against Stoke] and that’s now the most important one.”