Manchester United’s Forwards Can Thrive

In his postmatch news conference after Manchester United had beaten Crystal Palace 2-1 to win consecutive league games for the first time since August, Jose Mourinho didn’t step back. He was on the front foot, much like his Manchester United team had been in an impressive last 20 minutes at Selhurst Park on Wednesday, and Mourinho felt the display warranted a win.

“I think we deserved it because our best period was at 1-1,” Mourinho said. “In the first half, we controlled, no problem, but just control. In the second half, after their goal, it was not control. It was ‘go for it’, and with quality, with aggression, with risk, with passion. I think the players deserved that win.”

Mourinho’s comments sum up a key discussion regarding United’s season so far. If the Portuguese was so enthused with how his side went for it with “risk” and “aggression,” why did he take that away from them once again when they went 1-0 up?

Why did his side sit back so much, just as they did in the 1-1 draws against Stoke City, Arsenal and Everton? It cost them a win in all of those games and almost cost them at Selhurst Park, but this time a late Zlatan Ibrahimovic goal was enough for United to secure the victory after James McArthur’s 66th minute equaliser.

There’s one reason why he does it. That “control” he talked about has been one of the cornerstones of his success. There haven’t been too many managers in the history of the game as good at shutting down matches as Mourinho. So many of his best teams were masters at it.

Porto 2003-04, Chelsea 2004-06, Inter 2009-10 and even Chelsea 2014-15 — in the second half of their title-winning season — were so good at taking the lead in a game and then completely closing out the opposition. In his debut season at Stamford Bridge in 2004-05, for example, 11 of their 38 league games were 1-0 wins. Across his first two seasons, 40 of their 76 league games were victories where Chelsea also kept a clean sheet.

The difference was the quality of his defence. Mourinho does not have a cast-iron backline at Manchester United. He has a makeshift one. The Portuguese may have started to bring the best out of both Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo, but sources have said that he has still instructed the Old Trafford hierarchy to prioritise improving the defence in the January transfer window. There is the slim possibility United could sign as many as three defenders; two centre-backs and a right-back. Either way, that still isn’t a defence good enough to build his usual approach on.

Mourinho doesn’t need to buy any more attackers in the upcoming window. He already has an impressive variety to his forward line — arguably the best in the league if you consider the individual personnel.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic, 35, has proved he can still be prolific and the type of target man Mourinho favours. He has already struck up an understanding with Paul Pogba, who is capable of individual moments of inspiration above anyone else in the team, as his pass for the winning goal against Palace showed.

Around those two, Juan Mata offers creativity, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford offer pace, and Wayne Rooney still adds his experience and moments of guile as he chases the club’s all-time scoring record. There is already the sense, too, that a fully firing Henrikh Mkhitaryan elevates the attack and gives it a different dimension.

Whatever attack Mourinho picks — and even if he is understandably still figuring out which players work best together, or what will be successful against a certain opposition — there are a number of exciting potential combinations there.

There are certainly more ways to see off a game than sitting on a makeshift backline and trying to smother it — as good as some of Mourinho’s best teams have been at defending, a lot of them involved superb off-the-cuff attacking. You only have to think of Damien Duff or Arjen Robben roaring at teams before Mesut Ozil and Cristiano Ronaldo did so under the Portuguese at Real Madrid, while his Inter team were capable of brilliant interchanges through Wesley Sneijder too. United have the players to do this.

It is possible that Mourinho was stung by the performances against Stoke, Burnley and West Ham, when his side created so many chances but failed to score more than once. That may have caused this recent regression.

But the Palace win showed that attacking is something to have faith in. He has the forwards he wants, now it’s time to let them regularly step up. It’s time to play with that aggression or risk, regardless of what the score is.