For Manchester United’s struggle, Jose Mourinho offers unacceptable reason

Jose Mourinho blamed a not human schedule in April as Manchester United's chances of a top-four finish became bleak.

Manchester United played nine games in the month in April (Source: Reuters)

Jose Mourinho blamed a jam packed schedule for ruining Manchester United hopes of qualifying for next season’s Champions League. He felt that Man United was given a “not human” schedule in April, because of which his team has not made it to the top four in the Premier League table.

“We did not look tired and exhausted, we are tired and exhausted,” he said. “You cannot isolate the performance out of the context. This is the ninth match of April, it is not human. We have a squad of 22 that is reduced to 13 or 14 players. The players are very tired.”

The Red Devils played nine games in April out of which seven were Premier League fixtures against West Brom, Everton, Sunderland, Chelsea, Burnley FC, Manchester City and the latest against Swansea City. The other two were Europa League quarterfinals against Anderlecht.

If this is Mourinho’s excuse for failure, what does he have to say about clubs like Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern who played an equal number of games this month but are still at the top of their game?

While Barcelona overtook their Spanish rivals Real Madrid with almost 10 games in the month, Real too showed dominance to beat the German giants Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals of the Champions League. Bayern also ended the month on a high as they took home the Bundesliga title for the fifth consecutive time.

Agreed that Mourinho’s men played an extra game as compared to the current top four Premier League teams, but Man United also had comparatively easier fixtures, except when they faced leaders Chelsea and fourth-placed Manchester City. On the other hand, the other three clubs fought hard in the Champions League as well as their respective domestic leagues to stay on top.

The Red Devils face an injury crisis as left back Luke Shaw endured an ankle injury in Sunday’s 1-1 draw to Swansea City. Shaw joins Bailly, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Marcos Rojo, Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the injured list.

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“I don’t know about the injuries,” said Mourinho after the match. “I think Luke Shaw’s must be a big injury, because to leave the pitch after 10 minutes I am expecting a very big injury.”

However, the English side is not the only team to be playing in the absence of their key players. Real Madrid faced defensive woes since the middle of the month when Pepe got his rib fractured, with the latest victim being Gareth Bale who is out with muscle injury.

Bayern also went into the Champions League quarterfinals without their top goalscorer Robert Lewandowski. Then they faced another blow when goalkeeper Manuel Neuer was ruled out with a foot injury. But that was not enough to stop the German leaders to clinch the Bundesliga. Similarly Barca was missing their captain Andres Iniesta in the last clash.

Mourinho needs to learn from his colleagues to use the situation to his advantage rather than give lame excuses.