#1 Ask Pogba To Not Overdo It
When you expend an overlay for 89 million GBP on a player, you expect a result. Results, that, if they don’t come sooner, may compound the misery, altogether. Pogba, having that price tag, like an invisible ghoul following him around, may do all that it takes to exorcise it. And maybe, just maybe, he’s doing a bit too much. Picking up the ball from deep, trying to set the tempo, running into over-crowded midfield and getting on the end of his own one-twos.
Jose would do well to reel him aside, and tell him that there are 10 players around him, and no, he doesn’t have to try and win the match on his own.
#2 Persist With The 2-1 Midfield Triangle
Deploying a 2-1 midfield is an avenue that Jose seemed to be walking down in the last few of the United matches, trying to coax the best out of Paul Pogba. But it hasn’t quite reaped instant rewards. as his team’s lethargic showing vs Feyenoord and then the listless display against Watford, where they were embarrassed and outnumbered in the middle by Walter Mazzarri’s 3-5-2.
Jose would have to show his marked tight-jawed resilience to persist with the system till his players get around to forming an understanding.
#3 Drop Wayne Rooney
Manchester United, in its storied past, has perhaps not towed along a player as often, as long [or as heavy] as Wayne Rooney. Handing a player who was over the hill and far way from his peak, the captain’s armband was a long line of faux pas that has rendered the usefulness of one of England’s most players, pedestrian. Jose would have the unenviable task of taking the armband away and place it in the hands of someone who shows some semblance of inspiration or leadership.
#4 Get Carrick Involved
Even though the former England International is at the dusk of his career, he may be the ideal man to balance out the fluctuating tempo of a directionless United team. As displayed by all the losses United have had the ignominy to face this season, they have lacked someone who could orchestrate passages of play from deep. Playing Carrick, pairing him up wth a competent defensive midfielder who is full of running would compensate his ageing legs, and give Paul Pogba the license to break free from defensive responsibilities, like he was given the license to in Juventus, with Andrea Pirlo and Claudio Marchisio backing him.
#5 High-risk High-reward Football
Jose is not exactly in line with the United way of playing football. He has been, for the most part of his managerial career, a reactive manager than a proactive one. He’d need to reacquaint United and their fans of the fizz and the fury football that they were feared for. That may take some doing.
