At this point of time, the huge United fan base is split right down the middle about the England captain.
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But having spent nearly £150m in the summer on £89m world-record buy Paul Pogba, £27m on Henrikh Mkhitaryan and £30m on Eric Bailly, plus big wages for free agent Zlatan Ibrahimovic, United are not expecting to do business in mid-season.
Manchester United are now seventh in the Premier League, which is far lower than what they had hoped for prior to this season or even after a few games going in the season.
He says his Manchester United players must show character to bounce back and cited Ashley Young as a good example.
And yet at Watford, for a game laden with added significance on the back of defeats to Manchester City and Feyenoord, he had no specialists between defence and attack.
But Atkinson – who led United two FA Cup successes in 1983 and 1985 – does not believe an us-against-the-world approach will work for Mourinho.
“Mkhitaryan was more complicated”.
What do you think of the recent trouble that Manchester United is facing? Rooney makes this team, and his team-mates, worse not better.
Atkinson also noted: “I was surprised by the way United played in the derby”.
“But there’s times in the season, I’ve been involved with clubs where you need to come out and criticise them”. He feels it gets the best out of the players.
“[Aleksandar] Kolarov has the ball in a hard situation in the corner and my player instead of going up and pressing decides to give him space”. Although one of Watford’s goals should definitely have been disallowed for a foul, once again after Sunday’s game Mourinho, in trademark fashion, partially blamed the officials and United’s lack of luck for contributing to their inconsistent start.
With a big striker like Zlatan Ibrahimovic and runners like Rashford, this United side have got plenty of targets for that kind of playmaker, but against Watford they did not have a midfielder with the required passing range.
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It is therefore extremely important that this run that the Red Devils are on at the moment is brought to an end and now this game against the Cobblers has become a game that the team must win. Mourinho’s team are lumbering, ideas-poor and second-rate virtually everywhere.
