Mourinho cannot stop Manchester Manchester's fall

Mourinho cannot stop Manchester Manchester's fall. October. 25, 2016 07:18. by 정윤철기자 trigger@donga.com. Even Jose Mourinho, one of the greatest and most successful managers in the world, simply cannot stop Manchester United of England's Premier League from falling.

Manchester United had a 4-0 defeat against Chelsea in London on Monday. Mourinho, who had resigned from manager of Chelsea last season due to conflicts with his players, suffered a humiliating defeat, failing to take revenge on his former team.

When Alex Ferguson took charge of United for 28 years from 1986, the team grew into one of the world's most popular soccer clubs, winning 13 Premier League championships and two UEFA Champions League titles. Since the departure by Ferguson, who had a strong charisma and a good eye for promising players, United have been mired in a slump. In the 2013-2014 season, when Ferguson's successor David Moyes was fired for poor performance, the team ranked seventh in the league. Louis van Gaal, who led the Netherlands to the semifinals of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, took over the helms for two seasons, but the team ranked fourth and fifth in the league.

With a thirst for a championship, United attempted to rebuild its empire by putting Mourinho in charge before this season. Mourinho, who was catapulted to stardom after leading FC Port (Portugal) to the top of the 2003-2004 UEFA Champions League, took the helms of Chelsea, Inter Milan (Italy), Real Madrid (Spain), leading all of them to league championships. United supported Mourinho by signing Paul Pogba in a world record 89 million pound (151 million U.S. dollars) transfer deal.

However, Manchester has been struggling due to its excessive focus on signing strikers and failure to bolster its defense. Ferguson built a strong defense by deploying some of the world's top-class defenders such as Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Matic. Without any noticeable defensive reinforcement this season, Manchester has allowed 12 goals in nine league matches, the highest goal loss among the eight league leading teams. To make matters worse, new strikers including Zlatan Ibrahimovic have failed to melt into the team's tactics, making it difficult for it to earn points against strong teams.