Luke Shaw, Anthony Martial, and Paul Pogba: Has Mourinho's criticism worked?

Manchester United have struggled so far this season. The Red Devils are 10th in the Premier League table after nine games. One of the reasons given for the failures of the great English club is that head coach Jose Mourinho is too critical of his players. Mourinho's public and sometimes too honest assessment of particular players has been frowned upon by fans and the media alike.

However, it is arguable that Manchester United's three best players this season are the ones Mourinho has been accused of criticizing the most. Have his words actually spurred on these players rather than halt their performances? Let's take a look at some of the early season performances of the players most frequently on the end of the Portuguese's verbal attacks.

Luke Shaw

Jose Mourinho picked up from his predecessor Van Gaal and negatively judged Shaw's fitness levels. When the fullback did play well Mourinho famously said, 'It was his body with my brain - I made every decision for him." Shaw was even taken off at half-time during an FA Cup game last season with United up 2-0, Jose commented: “Luke in the first half – every time they come in his corridor, the cross was coming and a dangerous situation was coming so I was not happy with his performance.”

This season, in the last year of Shaw's contract many felt this would be the Englishman's final season in the red of Manchester. Shaw took a club trainer on his vacation to alleviate fears of his fitness and the 23-year old has hit the ground running this season. Shaw scored his first ever senior goal on the opening game of the season and has even earned himself a recall to the English national team. Back to back Manchester United Player of the Month awards has seen the player earn a new 5-year deal at the club.

Shaw credits the manager for taking his performances to a whole new level:

"It was a tough few years but it made me stronger mentally.…….I had a chat with the manager before the season and he said he wanted me to stay."- Luke Shaw

Mourinho himself has been extremely pleased with the improvement of the player:

"..the kid (Shaw) has to know that he had three very good matches in the Premier League and today he was very, very good. I am very, very happy with him."-Jose Mourinho

Anthony Martial

Anthony Martial created a lot of headlines during the pre-season when he left midway through the preparation to witness the birth of his child. In fact, what actually created the headlines is that the winger failed to return to camp on time sparking rumors of tension between himself and the manager.

Mourinho publicly expressed his dissatisfaction of the player's indiscipline and it seemed like a matter of time before the club would announce Martial's departure. Mourinho even fined the player for going AWOL. Being an unused substitute on the opening day of the season had many feeling that the bench would be Martial's home for most of the season.

The opposite has happened, the former Monaco man is currently Manchester United's hottest prospect. His double against Chelsea was maybe his best performance in a Manchester United shirt. His three Premier League goals this season is more than Roberto Firmino, Leroy Sane and Willian. Not only his goals, but Martial is also becoming a player who wants the ball, a player who is most likely to make great things happen. Like Shaw, Martial is expected to sign a new contract in the coming weeks and don't be surprised if he receives a French national team call-up in the near future.

Martial has even gone a step further and claimed there was never any issue between the manager and himself.

"Things were not tense between us to begin with [before the performance at Chelsea]," said Martial.We have a player-coach relationship and I hope that we will continue like that and bring Manchester United as much as possible."-

Anthony Martial

Paul Pogba

The most widely covered player/manager feud has been Paul Pogba v Jose Mourinho. Both parties have denied any disagreement but numerous reports, as well as a viral video of the two arguing, seems to suggest otherwise. Last season Pogba was omitted from the starting line up of a crucial Champions League tie vs Sevilla and this season after giving the World Champion the captain's armband Mourinho took it away.

All these antics have been reported on endlessly but somehow Pogba's individual performances for the club have not been affected. The midfielder leads the club in goals and assists and has started every single one of United's Premier League and Champions League games.

The truth is we are together for two years and a couple of weeks and I've never been so happy with him as I am now, that's the truth. I cannot demand more from him,” -

Mourinho on Pogba

Interestingly, the players who have disappointed the most this season are the ones who are rarely ever criticized by the self-proclaimed "special one".

Edited by Deepanshu Sharma