The Uefa Super Cup may only be a curtain-raiser to the new season, a one-off game between the winners of the Champions League and the Europa League who compete for a trophy that doesn’t carry too much significance … but try telling that to Jose Mourinho and Man United, writes MOGAMAD ALLIE in SportsClub magazine.
After including last year’s Community Shield in Manchester United’s ‘treble’ season, imagine how much more that winning the Super Cup, the one major piece of European silverware he doesn’t have in his collection, would mean to the Portuguese manager, particularly against 12-time European champions Real Madrid.
The game between the world’s two most popular clubs presents Mourinho with a great opportunity to make a big statement before what will be a decisive season for manager and club. It also offers the two-time Champions League winner a chance to put one over his former employers when the sides meet in Skopje on 8 August – for what is a more prestigious version of the Community Shield.
The first challenge facing the Manchester United manager will be to ensure his charges do not return from Macedonia having been hammered by a team that won a record 12th Champions League crown – by putting four past a Juventus side that had conceded only three goals en route to the final in Cardiff.
There’s little chance of that happening, though, as Mourinho simply loves a challenge, particularly when he’s the underdog. If anything, the game against Real provides him with the perfect stage to prove his tactical mastery against a team that can lay claim to being the best in the world.
Make no mistake, United have the pedigree to take on Madrid, who are expected to be without the influential Cristiano Ronaldo, their talisman who netted an incredible 42 goals in all competitions last season.
If he hasn’t moved from Los Meringues by then, the 32-year-old striker will in any case be rested by coach Zinedine Zidane, who promised his best player time off after his exertions with Portugal in June’s Confederations Cup in Russia.
Despite the game taking place just five days before the start of the new Premier League season, Mourinho will see the Super Cup as an opportunity to win a fourth trophy in just over 12 months at United. There is also the sub-plot of him facing Real for the first time since his acrimonious sacking in 2013.
Mourinho’s winning and competitive mentality is such that he will want a measure of revenge, while also being keen to send a message to his domestic rivals and those Champions League heavyweights who lie in wait in the group stages of the competition.
United spent last season in the Europa League because they failed to qualify for the Champions League, and by finishing sixth in the Premier League in 2017 would have missed out again if it hadn’t been for their Europa League triumph against Ajax in May.
The process of rebuilding the squad to make the Red Devils competitive in Europe’s elite competition and in the Premier League kicked off soon after the 2016-17 season came to a close. Benfica’s highly-rated Swedish defender Victor Lindelof was the first of an expected bevy of new additions to strengthen the squad for what will be an important campaign. Real striker Alvaro Morata was said to be on his way, while Tottenham Hotspur’s Eric Dier was mentioned as a long-term replacement for midfield anchor Michael Carrick.
Mourinho’s biggest job, though, will be to coax the best out of his record signing, Paul Pogba, whose five league goals in 29 appearances last season was a poor return on the club’s £85-million investment. United are also in danger of losing goalkeeper David De Gea to Real, and if that does happen, the Spain international will be difficult to replace.
United last won the league in 2012-13, the final season of the glorious 27-year Alex Ferguson era. Their long-suffering fans, who have watched on enviously as neighbours Manchester City, Chelsea and Leicester City have claimed the title since, are confident the 54-year-old ‘Special One’ is the man to end their four-season title drought.
Winning the league or even finishing in the top four, non-negotiable as it may be for a club of United’s stature, is going to be difficult. Last season’s Champions League qualifiers, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City and Liverpool would have strengthened their squads, as would a wounded Arsenal, while teams like Everton, Southampton, Bournemouth, Stoke City and West Bromwich Albion, among others, are all capable of upsetting the big guns in what has become a highly competitive league.
Chelsea will be difficult to dislodge as champions; Pep Guardiola, in his second season with Manchester City, will be much wiser to the rigours of the Premier League, while Spurs and Liverpool will once again challenge strongly for a top-four finish.
The Old Trafford faithful will no doubt be hoping Mourinho continues his trend of being a second-season master. At each of his previous four clubs he achieved massive success once he’d had one season to establish himself.
He won the league within the first two seasons at Porto, Chelsea – in both spells – and at Inter Milan and Real Madrid, who were struggling before his arrival. He also delivered the Champions League to Porto and Inter in his second season. For Red Devils fans, doing well in the league will be a priority, while claiming their fourth Champions League title would be a bonus.
Still, Mourinho has an enviable record in European competitions, being the first coach to win the Champions League and Uefa Cup/Europa League on multiple occasions. Besides lifting the big-eared Champions League trophy twice, he also reached five successive semi-finals between 2010 and 2014 en route to guiding his teams to the last four for a record eight times in the competition.
The last time he went out before the semi-final stage was in 2008-09, when Inter were eliminated at the round-of-16 stage by Manchester United, so he has a history that will make the big boys in Europe fear being drawn alongside his team.
Mourinho, who says last season was his toughest as a coach, has been favoured with a relatively easy start to the league campaign as United seek a vast improvement on last season. They finished a whopping 24 points behind champions Chelsea, thanks mainly to their 15 draws, the highest in the league.
The first time they face a team that finished in the top six last season comes when they travel to Anfield for the always-anticipated clash against arch-rivals Liverpool on 14 October. Yes, they conceded only 29 goals last season – only Spurs, with 26, leaked less – but their defensive style saw the Red Devils scoring only 54 goals, with even ninth-placed Bournemouth, on 55, and Everton, on 62, rattling the net more. Clearly they need a greater attacking impetus to supplement their defensive stinginess if they are to force themselves into the title race.
The belief is genuine that United can get better this season, and that will grow with further summer signings, but the fans will be careful about another false dawn.
– This article first appeared in issue 110 of SportsClub magazine
