6 lessons from Maurinho’s tenure at Manchester United

1)     You cannot depend on past tactics/methods

You may have won 3 premier league titles and two champions league trophies, but people know your game. They know how to play you. Past success is not going to guarantee you future success. This is why we need to always sharpen the saw, continue to learn new skills and improve your tactics. Individuals need to learn new skills so they can stay ahead of the game. With knowledge easily available, people can learn what you do, when you do. Therefore, one needs to find new edge in their game.

2)     When you have a problem with a team member….take it private.

Maurinho regularly brought issues with players out in the open. He may have been trying to be transparent about the challenges he had with their behaviour but he was overly critical of them in the open. It is important not to belittle team members in public. A Manager should speak to his team member in private. Sir Alex would give the ‘hair dryer’ treatment to players who failed to perform but he would only do it within the team and never in public. Every individual responds differently to different management styles but overall, criticizing players in public is a losing game and does not serve as a motivation.

3)     Use your resources to your advantage.

Maurinho often played players out of their preferred roles. He was probably hoping they would adjust since they are talented players. Well, some may even argue they get paid a lot of money so they should play the way their manager wants them to play. That may have been the case probably many years ago but the players did not respond to Maurinho’s call for this. You could see stars struggle and somehow the football was not enjoyable. ”. Let players do what they do best. Rigid frameworks often fail. The best managers win with what they have. United beat Arsenal 8-2 with O’shea and Gibson in central midfield during Sir Alex’s time.

4)     Invest in young talent.

Other than Rashford and Lingard, Maurinho did not play many of the academy players. He would use them on and off but he kept changing his sides with the players he had. Youngsters bring a certain energy and the desire to impress. It is also footballs way of giving players on the job training. Maurinho did not expose the youngsters enough. Mourinho is all about winning at all cost but it comes with a cost as his teams are never sustainable, as evidence of his tenure of less than 3 seasons at every club.

5)     He kept changing his team

Most managers have a core team and they rotate carefully. Maurinho kept changing his teams so frequently that there was no stability in the lineups. The players were not able to gel as a team and did not know each others styles enough to “connect”.

6)     Let the players enjoy what they do

The team seems to have new energy. The passing and the runs and the goals they are scoring makes them look like a different team altogether. This is the same team that was struggling to score against the teams they can easily beat now. This when the players enjoy what they do. When you stifle their style and how they express themselves they did not perform at their best.

In summary, there was talk of players wanting to leave. This happens when managers make the mistakes Maurinho makes. Had he stayed on there may have been an exodus of the talent that seems to be able to play well now. Organizations can learn from these mistakes. Those who do, wins the league.

There are of course things like Ed Woodwards role in the mess but that is for another day and another time.