Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has his mojo back and it is rubbing off on everyone around him
Message in Boxing Day notes is as positive a one as you will have heard from Old Trafford since the days of Sir Alex Ferguson
LET THERE be no doubt about it, the bounce is most definitely back at Manchester United.
Among the fans, among the players and certainly with the manager.
Jose Mourinho has his mojo back and it is rubbing off on everyone around him.
His message in his Boxing Day programme notes is as positive a one as you will have heard from Old Trafford since the days of Sir Alex Ferguson.
Mourinho wrote: “The players I have here are all great people who all want to do well for you and for the club, and also for each other.
“The team spirit I see is just fantastic, it is getting better every single day and I think that is showing in the way we are playing, because some of the football we have produced in recent weeks has been very, very good.”
And that was before they produced some more, ‘very good’ football to beat Sunderland 3-1.
No longer is the message about transition, about things taking time. United fans do not want to be lectured any more about how it will never be the same again as it was under Fergie.
True, the strength in depth at the top end points to the fact that nobody is going to be dominant in the way his United was.
And the current United side are still only in sixth spot — 13 points adrift of leaders Chelsea.
But it can still be the Manchester United that the fans know and love and Mourinho is getting that back.
That was encapsulated in the Boxing Day victory over the Black Cats.
Witness the build-up and finish for United’s first goal at Old Trafford as a midfielder, centre-back, striker and finally full-back Daley Blind all combined.
As Mourinho explained afterwards everyone now knows where to go and what to do when their team-mates have the ball.
There is room for individuality within this United team now as well.
The side under previous boss Louis van Gaal was faceless, lacking in any identity.
There were no characters, no big noise, no reason to race to the club shop to have a name put on the back of your shirt.
Now you have Zlatan Ibrahimovich, Paul Pogba and, of course, Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
In him United once more have a player who can draw you to the edge of your seat, leave you guessing as to what is going to happen next, even rubbing your eyes in disbelief as he did with his scorpion kick goal on Monday.
Held back until Mourinho thought he was physically ready for the Premier League, the Armenian has now been unleashed.
Elsewhere, Michael Carrick is appreciated now in a way like never before.
Forgotten names have come back out of the shadows in Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo. Players who arrived with a sense of expectation like Ander Herrera are now showing their true selves
Then, of course, there is Ibrahimovich. A striker to be feared.
He hit his 17th goal of the campaign on Boxing Day, the total Anthony Martial racked up for the whole of last season to finish as United’s top scorer.
The football is not from the new age. It is not about playing it out from the back and weaving magical patterns on the way up the pitch.
It is quick, direct, powerful. It has a sense of urgency about it.
The intensity of work that is back on the training pitches of Carrington is being reflected on the pitch.
In the same way the mind-numbing repetitiveness of LVG’s sessions were.
And unlike under Van Gaal, the fans are once more witnessing a manager with passion.
The United faithful love to see a bit of steam being let off on the sidelines, even if it is at the expense of an unsuspecting water bottle.
The boos that rang round Old Trafford for three years are no longer heard.
However, for this season, at least, the title is out of sight again.
The top four? Well that really is a possibility again if United can maintain the impetus built in this five-game winning run. They are 11 unbeaten now.
But for many United fans the priority has not been about silverware.
After all, they greeted last season’s FA Cup triumph by booing the manager.
It has been about getting their club back. In Mourinho they have someone who has done that.
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