The last week and a bit have been pretty eye-opening for Jose Mourinho and his Manchester United players.
After an immaculate start to the season with three from three wins and the inevitable title challenge talk that came with it, the Red Devils were brought crashing back to Earth by their nearest rivals Manchester City.
City outplayed them at Old Trafford and whilst that alone would not have bothered Mourinho too much, what was to come will have. The Red Devils travelled to Rotterdam to face Feyenoord in the Europa League and lost despite fielding a pretty strong side before Sunday saw them get trumped for commitment, desire and downright willingness to win against Watford, something uncharacteristic of a Mourinho team.
The Hornets went about getting at United with real intensity and fully deserved the three points whilst the men from Manchester were sent home wondering how to get out of what’s becoming a harmful rut.
The Portuguese boss must feel it’s time for significant changes and after these three were particular let downs, they could be facing the axe first…
Wayne Rooney
It seems pretty fashionable to have a pop at the Manchester United captain at the moment but to be fair, this performance in particular wasn’t great. He seemed slow to get the ball out of his feet and halted United’s attacking play when they had lined up with more pace than usual with Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial on either side. If he plays he should be a striker in my opinion but with Zlatan Ibrahimovic there, it could just as likely be the bench for Rooney against Leicester.
Paul Pogba
At one point in the game, Pogba rattled the crossbar with a swirling effort that made you sit up and think, finally, the world’s most expensive player has arrived. This, however, was not to be as the Frenchman once again underwhelmed. Expectations of him are arguably too high as his fee should have been for a player that gets you around 50 goals a season. Pogba’s never going to do that but it’d be nice of him to get one at some point this season.
Anthony Martial
Martial looked well off the pace and his confidence looks absolutely on the floor. He has been nowhere near what he was last season and got bullied by Watford on Sunday. Yes, he did appear to suffer concussion, and that obviously blighted his game thereafter but even before that he was missing and should seriously be worried about his place with Marcus Rashford looking a definite on the other flank.