3 tactical changes against Newcastle United that possibly saved Jose Mourinho’s job

#2 Playing just one centre-back

Mourinho played with just one centre-back for over 70 minutes

Now, if the decision to play five attacking players in the second half came as surprise, then the intuition to go with just one centre-back was even more shocking. Man United was clearly struggling after the first 15 minutes and Eric Bailly was probably the worst culprit.

However, very few managers could have had the courage to take off the defender and replace him with an extra attacking player. With Man United 2-0 down at the time, this was a huge risk and dare I say it was an “un-Mourinho-like” decision in the first place to bring Mata on.

In the end, it proved to be a shrewd tactical move and the attacking intensity led to the Red Devils overturning the scoreline and eventually winning 3-2. In the days of Alex Ferguson, such a thing was very common at Old Trafford.

However, those days are long gone, and it was refreshing to see Mourinho making such a tactical switch at such a crucial time. It may just have saved his job after that win.