Over at Betway’s Blow The Whistle they’ve got three talking points this week.
The first ‘Is Pep Guardiola too principled’ is easily answered.
Yes, he is too principled, sometimes he can’t see the wood for the trees.
The second ‘Time to go Claudio?’ looks at whether one of the biggest fairytales in sporting history has turned into enough of a nightmare to get Ranieri sacked. No, it hasn’t, not yet.
But it’s the third which has really caught our attention. Betway have asked ‘Are United unlucky?’, following manager Jose Mourinho and many of the club’s fans blaming cursed luck for league position.
No, no they’re not. And when Mourinho’s Manchester United do well that won’t be because they’re lucky. Poor results being blamed on a lack of luck has gone back to October for Mourinho’s men. He must have murdered a black cat crossing his path by smashing a mirror over its head.
Believing in something which essentially doesn’t exist as a system of prolonged success or failure, and using that to explain football results is an age old tale. Manchester United fans should know that only too well, for way over a decade they had opposition fans tell them they were ‘lucky’ or ‘jammy’ for managing to win the league, once again.
Mourinho has had a colourful career and built up quite a bit of bad karma along the way, and perhaps there’s a feeling from some Manchester United fans, who have created shrines and sacrificed small animals to reverse the curse (maybe), that the Football Gods are paying him back.
But that’s not right either. We can’t create a whole new belief system simply to justify Manchester United failing to convert enough chances this season. Mourinho’s bad karma is a negative for his new club, but only through adding motivation for rivals.
Mazzarri had been on the end of several Mourinho snipes over the years, which, whatever the Italian may say, will have made Watford’s 3-1 win even sweeter. Chelsea’s convincing 4-0 humiliation of Manchester United will of course have been celebrated just that little bit more in the dressing room afterwards.
And Mourinho’s long standing pokes at Arsene Wenger will have have added an extra motivation to help Arsenal get themselves a late equaliser at Old Trafford.
It’s simply built up animosity. The club is the big bad wolf of English football for many and Mourinho is a pantomime villain, getting a result against Manchester United is very attractive indeed.
So whilst opposition teams may be more motivated against Manchester United, partly down to Mourinho himself, they can’t be totally held responsible for what happens in Manchester United’s attack.
Scoring goals isn’t luck. There’s no point having all the possession, all the passes, all the territory, playing attractive football, if that doesn’t lead to enough goals to win a game.
It’s the most important part of football, and that’s why those who score and create the goals are more often than not the guys on the biggest of big bucks.
To surmise that a team is playing well because they’re ‘doing everything but scoring’ is frankly ridiculous. Ok, maybe you can have one game of that, but not a whole series.
You’d be better ‘doing nothing but scoring’, given what the actual point of the game of football is.
As Betway’s Tom says, Manchester United have the “Third worst shot to goals ratio in the league. That’s not bad luck, that’s just bad.”
Balls have been prevented from going into the net by goalkeepers and defenders, not sudden gusts of wind. Posts have been hit because shots weren’t on target, not because there’s a mysterious magnetic pull between ball and stantion. Shots have gone too high or too wide because players weren’t able to convert chances of varying quality, not because of a predestined fate cursing Manchester United.
There’s been a problem and it’s one that Mourinho will almost certainly solve. Why will he solve it? Well, because he has to. There is so much riding on this for Mourinho that he simply has to solve it, which places the odds in favour of him doing so.
Unless he’s totally immersed himself in delusion, Mourinho will be well aware that luck isn’t his problem. Whatever he says.
Got an opinion on United’s luck? Think we’ve been too harsh? Watch the Betway video and decide whether Tom or Jack comes out top in the mini-debates.
Leave a comment after Betway’s Blow The Whistle video on Jose’s fortune, Ranieri getting sacked or Pep Guardiola’s principles, to have a good chance of a free £10 bet. It’s also applicable to the video on their Facebook page, so make sure you have your say.
