Mourinho has to go? 5 things we learned from Man United's UCL exit to Sevilla

In a diabolical night of football, Manchester United were beaten 2-1 at home by Sevilla.

The defeat was not only embarrassing but it sees Manchester United crash out of the Champions League in the Round of 16 in what was, with the greatest of respect, a winnable tie.

It was a cavalcade of misery for The Red Devils, but what did we learn?

Jose Mourinho needs to go?

It’s as simple as that. While Sevilla are definitely better than the television punditry gave them credit for, they’re not a great side. They’re alright. They conceded five goals five times this season and yet Manchester United played them like they were Barcelona or Real Madrid. They’re not that good. Yet all Vincenzo Montella had to do was bring on his good striker and he won the tie.

Attempts to frame this as an “off-night” are also wide of the mark. This loss was emblematic of the entirety of Jose Mourinho’s reign at Old Trafford once Zlatan Ibrahimovic began to fade (and then got injured) towards the end of 2016/17. United were formless in attack and in defence they relied solely on the brilliance of Eric Bailly and David De Gea.

Relying on individuals in defence is always going to end in disaster, and today it did. Bailly was supreme until even he got exhausted and Ben Yedder managed to get away from him, and boom, goal. Even when Bailly was performing miracles, Sevilla had 21 shots on goal; the most at Old Trafford for many years.

And in attack? There was nothing. Absolutely nothing. Mourinho has long fed off the brilliance of Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford on the left, including in the weekend’s big win over Liverpool. So to deny himself that weapon by moving Rashford to the right was baffling. To avoid playing a midfield three made no sense. Alexis Sanchez was put in his least impressive position on the left, and again he struggled to impact the game; something oh so typical of his United career thus far.

Mourinho either can’t or won’t motivate and structure his side to play coherent modern football. They look like a collection of individuals rather than a team of any kind. There are no ideas here, no imagination. People can blame the individuals all they like, but it’s the manager’s job to set his side out in a way that maximises the talent his players possess and Mourinho consistently fails to do that.

You can see what Mourinho brought to Manchester United, he’s returned that cockiness and confidence and desire to win to the Old Trafford dressing room. That task is now complete (it was complete after last season, to be honest) and he’s taken the side as far as he can. Whatever players they sign this summer, Jose Mourinho has to go.

Midfield two was a mistake

After having much success at the weekend against Liverpool playing a 4-2-3-1, Mourinho opted to stick with that system against Sevilla. Of course what he hadn’t considered, or maybe he had and just didn’t care, is that Sevilla actually have quality creative central midfielders.

Liverpool’s trio of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Emre Can and James Milner are hard-working but little else. Ever Banega and Steven N’Zonzi are considerably better. So what ended up happening was Marouane Fellaini and Nemanja Matic were constantly outnumbered and unable to protect the United defence, especially with Tucu Correa and Mudo Vazquez dropping deep to pick the ball up and run.

The worst part? It wasn’t even a two for a lot of it. With Fellaini pushing up high it was often just Matic in there alone trying to stop Ever Banega from running the show. It didn’t go well. Then he withdrew Fellaini for a clearly half-fit Paul Pogba, and things didn’t get better. It’s hard to say if they got worse, but things were just blandly flatlining. For the entirety of the tie, even as United were crying out for an extra body to get hold of the match, Mourinho persisted with a duo; and it ended how you’d expect.

Brilliant Ben Yedder

For some reason, Luis Muriel started both legs of this tie. Now there’s nothing wrong with the Colombian striker, he’s fine, but Sevilla have a genuine marksman in their squad and to see him excluded was baffling.

Wissam Ben Yedder came on in the 71st minute. By the 78th minute he had won the tie for Sevilla with two goals. By the 80th minute he could have had a hat-trick (and by the 91st he should have had one).

Whilst his second goal was an opportunistic back-post header that he guided artfully into the back of the net via the crossbar, the first one, the goal that finally broke open this grind of a tie, was a work of art.

Ben Yedder received a straight pass as he was moving across the pitch, but Human Brick Wall Eric Bailly was in his way, so Ben Yedder did the only thing he could do. He sat Bailly on his backside with the meanest hesitation move imaginable, and, with Bailly down, Ben Yedder smashed the ball into the back of the net.

It was an enormous goal, and his second minutes later not only killed the tie but also moved him onto eight goals, making him the second-highest top goalscorer in the competition. Imagine if he had started the first leg…

Rashford wrong on the right

Marcus Rashford obliterated Liverpool on the left. He’s only ever played well on the right in a couple of games for England, and even that was tenuous. His best skills are dribbling and shooting, so putting him on the right really nullifies his ability to do… well… anything.

Yet Rashford was on the right for the vast majority of the match tonight. Even when he occasionally drifted to the left and actually looked really dangerous, he was again shunted to the right. At some point deep in the second half, Alexis Sanchez moved to the right seemingly of his own volition, allowing Rashford to play on the left. But soon after that, Sevilla took the game away from United.

Obviously there were many tactical and selection mistakes from Mourinho tonight, but the one that epitomised his failure the most was taking the weekend’s big match-winner and needlessly changing his position to neuter his best skills. And then he reaped the whirlwind.

Romelu Lukaku proves his worth

On a night when nothing went right for Manchester United, Romelu Lukaku proved something. Not only did he score United’s only goal of the game, a rasping volleyed finish as he was being fouled to give United hope in a hopeless situation, but he actually played well.

Time and time again, Lukaku had the ball fired into him at awkward angles and also had very little support. Then time and time again, he made something of the chances. He grabbed hold of the ball, he pushed defenders out of the way, he created space and attacked it. Were it not for a miraculous display from Clement Lenglet he may have dragged United to victory on his own.

It’s a minor highlight, but this felt like something of a statement game for Romelu Lukaku. A night when he showed that he is capable of standing up and being counted when his club need him most. A bit of bright sky on the horizon for next season, perhaps.