Date: 15th August 2016 at 4:20pm
Written by:

Mentality is half the battle in football.

Last season, Leicester City were feared. Every team travelling to the King Power Stadium or welcoming the Foxes to their own ground went into the match knowing that they were against the odds to come out on top.

This allowed the team to believe in themselves and as the pressure heightened, so did the calibre of performances. Their relatively inexperienced and low market value squad conquered the biggest teams in the country and cruised to claiming their first Premier League title.

Their never-say-die mentality overcame the highest quality of opponents to prove that a great deal of a football match is mental.

Photo: Marc Atkins / Offside.

Wayne Rooney doubled United’s lead at AFC Bournemouth on Sunday – Photo: Marc Atkins / Offside.

Manchester United may be a completely different side to beat to the Foxes, having shelled out an outrageous sum of money already this summer, but Jose Mourinho has already set about giving his side the mental upper hand, just as Leicester had last term.

It is this fear factor that left Old Trafford with Sir Alex Ferguson. Under the Scotsman’s guidance, Manchester United was, without a shadow of doubt, the most feared club in England, perhaps even in the world.

Any club travelling to The Theatre of Dreams might as well write off any chance of picking up points and, if they did, it was so outrageous that it would make waves across the country. As soon as Sir Alex left and the sheepish David Moyes took the reigns, that fear went out the window.

United weren’t a club that expected to win. They were a side with weaknesses that could be exploited. Old Trafford was a place where points could be picked up and United were never genuine title contenders. This worsened with time as the cracks expanded and Moyes, followed by Louis Van Gaal, dug their own holes to self-implode in.

However, this fear factor is the first thing that Jose Mourinho has introduced. His demeanour in itself makes United title challengers again. He suffered an awful 2015-16 campaign at Chelsea, yet as soon as he was announced as the United boss, the odds of the Red Devils winning the title were lowered.

This was before the arrivals of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba, and before he had even watched over a single game. The fact is Mourinho doesn’t accept anything but the best, just as Sir Alex did. At Stamford Bridge if anything at all went wrong he would refuse to acknowledge that it was the team’s fault.

This was; ultimately, his downfall, but the message he kept sending to the press and other clubs was “my side is perfect, my side is unbeatable”. Therefore, when they looked weak or lost a match, the attention would be thrown elsewhere (Eva Carneiro, for instance).

It was just in the manner in which he walked into Manchester United that this unbeatable mood was, again, created. His dire time at Chelsea seemed far from his mind and he looked like a champion. His body language full of swagger, his stern face unmovable, fully focused on the task. That intimidates teams. Mourinho knows full well what he is doing and within seconds of his appointment, the fear factor started to return.

Photo: Simon Stacpoole / Offside.

Ibrahimovic joined the Red Devils this summer after leaving Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain – Photo: Simon Stacpoole / Offside.

The new arrivals into the club, namely Ibrahimovic and Pogba, also have played a huge role in increasing this fear factor. Ibrahimovic is a class act and is guaranteed to score goals this season. However, what he also brings is his persona.

There are a number of world class strikers out in the football world that would have taken the chance to work at United under Mourinho, but none offered the off-the-pitch status that Zlatan does. Ibrahimovic arrived in Manchester ready to become a “God” as Eric Cantona claimed he was the “King”.

Over the past few seasons, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi aside, no footballer in the world has really gained the social media traction that the Swede has. His biography is, indeed, one of the biggest selling football books of all time. His transfer to United got everyone talking and when people are discussing you in such a light it creates, that’s right, fear.

The way in which Manchester United and Mourinho handled the unveiling of Pogba was unparalleled in the history of football. Many fans mocked how it was “football’s worst kept secret”, but this was no accident. The club built up the story until it was at breaking point before confirming the deal.

They were, in no small part, helped to do this by adidas Football. The two collaborated to produce countless graphics, videos and hashtags in order to attract the most attention possible. The series of “blah, blah, blah” videos released featuring Pogba and rapper Stormzy capture the mood that Mourinho wants to create perfectly.

The “blah, blah, blah” is likely referring to the questioning of United’s abilities over the past few seasons and Mourinho has already silenced it, the Pogba move the final nail in that coffin. It’s all intricately calculated so that when the season started, clubs fear United once again.

Manchester United Football Club is not just a team of eleven players on a Saturday afternoon. It is a business and a monstrous one at that.

If the team is going to fire like they did under Sir Alex Ferguson, it needs the rest of the club to create the right atmosphere. In just a few months, the club has done that, going from the fearful to the to-be-feared.

Manchester United has got across that message already and, therefore, half the battle to the league title has been won.

 
Brought to you by Shoot!

Comments are closed.