Ruthless, efficient, winners: Chelsea everything Jose Mourinho wants Manchester United to be

Jose Mourinho was voicing a familiar complaint in a different way. “If I was a Manchester United defender, I would be very upset with the attacking players,” he said after Thursday’s 1-1 draw with Anderlecht in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final. “They did the serious work. The people who had to kill the game didn’t.” Mourinho’s teams have long had a killer instinct. His United side pull the trigger often enough. It is just that their aim is awry. It is why, as he approaches Sunday’s reunion with Chelsea, more of the characteristics of a classic Mourinho side — clinical, relentless, a group that wins key moments, do not relinquish leads and lead from the front in a title race — belong to his old employers. __________________________________ Read more ■ Podcast: Evaluating the PFA Player of the Year shortlist ■ Allardyce strikes again: Smart transfers help Crystal Palace revival ■ Predictions: Tottenham close the gap on Chelsea to five points __________________________________ Only Diego Costa and Thibaut Courtois are occupying the same roles they did for Mourinho, and Chelsea have been reinvented and revitalised by Antonio Conte. They are making a success of a 3-4-2-1 system that, for years, was anathema to Mourinho. Yet there is a Mourinho-esque quality to their progress. There is not about his current charges. Not when United draw the sort of games Chelsea win and miss the kind of chances they take. It is an easy assertion that Chelsea are a considerably better team than United. Results show as much. Yet it may console and frustrate Mourinho in equal measure that his new side are scarcely inferior in other, albeit less relevant respects. Because while Chelsea have scored 19 goals more than United in the Premier League, they average 2.7 shots per game less and enjoy a lower share of possession. Even in arguably the most humiliating result of Mourinho’s career, the statistics were similar. Chelsea won 4-0 when they met in October. They had six shots on target, United five. Chelsea wing-back Marcos Alonso has outscored Paul Pogba, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial in the Premier League. John Sibley / Reuters One interpretation is to say Chelsea are creating clearer chances. Another is that profligacy is a recurring problem for United. Zlatan Ibrahimovic represents Mourinho’s closest ally on the playing staff and the success story of their season. Yet the fact remains that he and Costa are twinned on 17 league goals while the Swede has had 23 more shots. Eden Hazard’s 14 league goals have come from 24 fewer attempts than Paul Pogba’s four. Conte’s left wing-back, Marcos Alonso has outscored any of Pogba, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial in the top flight. A corollary of this profligacy is that Mkhitaryan and Rashford have created 44 chances between them and have a solitary assist apiece. The numbers offer indications of United’s travails. If the definitive Mourinho player was the perpetually productive Frank Lampard, too many of his modern-day footballers’ quality and efforts are not reflected in the figures. Jose Mourinho bemoaned his attackers inability to “kill the game” in the 1-1 Europa League draw with Anderlecht. Andrew Couldridge / Reuters At Chelsea, Mourinho could win titles by beating the best or by beating the rest. Conte’s side may have a similar capacity. They have only missed out on seven points against the bottom 13 sides. United’s tally is 17, 14 of them in draws. Six of those draws came at Old Trafford, where United have also been held by Arsenal, Liverpool and Everton. Chelsea have not drawn at Stamford Bridge at all. They are consistent winners with the continuity of selection Mourinho’s sides used to boast. Eleven Chelsea players have at least 22 league starts. Only five of their United counterparts do. A draining Europa League campaign is one explanation, injuries another but it is possible to detect some indecision in Mourinho. A manager who replaced ‘the Tinkerman,’ Claudio Ranieri, at Stamford Bridge, has become the Tinkerman at Old Trafford. Now he is looking for United’s fortunes to change: in front of goal, in particular, but also to convert draws into wins, United into the Chelsea of old and the Chelsea of now. Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TheNationalSport

Ruthless, efficient, winners: Chelsea everything Jose Mourinho wants Manchester United to be

Richard Jolly previews Manchester United's Premier League encounter with Jose Mourinho's old club Chelsea.