Monday 31 October 2016 07:00, UK
Jose Mourinho is suddenly looking 'old-school' compared to Jurgen Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino, says the Sunday Supplement panel.
Mourinho was sent to the stands after half-time for his angry reaction to Manchester United not being awarded a penalty for a tackle on Matteo Darmian as they were held to a 0-0 draw with Sean Dyche's Burnley at Old Trafford on Saturday.
The result means United have now failed to win any of their last four Premier League games, leaving them eighth in the table, and the Sunday Supplement panel suggested other top-flight managers are now beginning to make Mourinho's philosophy look tired.
"He's beginning to look like an old-school manager," says The Times' Alyson Rudd. "He's suddenly looking quite old because you've got young managers like Pochettino and Klopp who have refreshed the way football is played in the Premier League and what they demand from their players."
"He can only win ugly," said The Sun's Antony Kastrinakis. "He can never win the Pep [Guardiola] way or the Klopp way. That's his nature.
"His behaviour was worse at Chelsea [when United lost 4-0]. What Mourinho couldn't take was that [Antonio] Conte took the same players that he had last season, and gave them a lesson in football."
It is not just Mourinho who is now showing signs of his age, according to Rudd, who believes the signing of Zlatan Ibrahimovic was one that would not have been taken up by a number of other Premier League teams.
The Swede has now failed to score in his last five games in all competitions for United, missing at least three gilt-edged chances from 12 shots at goal and is now on his longest stretch of league games without scoring since 2007 when he was at Inter Milan.
"For all that I love Zlatan Ibrahimovic, again he's an old-school player, someone who presses and makes a nuisance of himself," said Rudd. "I can't see Zlatan working for a Klopp team or a Pochettino team.
"Mourinho seems to have brought in a good friend, he admires him, he's an asset at the club but there is a reason why a lot of mangers in the Premier League would not even take him for free. He wouldn't fit. If Daniel Sturridge doesn't quite fit at Liverpool, Zlatan isn't going to fit at Liverpool. It's as though he's living in a decade too far away."
