Manchester United 0-0 San Jose Earthquakes: 5 Talking Points

#4 Lack of creativity in the team

Mourinho started with the same 4-3-3 formation that he used in the first game. Manchester United had 571 passes with 85% accuracy. But they were quite slow in possession. Even with the pace of Martial, Sanchez and Chong up front, United lacked speed in their build up.

Everyone took time on the ball and the transition from midfield to attack was not as fast as it should have been. But what came as a surprise was that when things didn’t work out, Jose did not try a change in formation, neither did he try to spice things up.

It is true that Valencia’s calf injury did jeopardize United’s game, yet Mourinho did little to counter the adversity. He could have brought in Fosu-Mensah, but opted for Darmian, probably preferring calmness and solidity in defence over speed and fluidity in attack.

Pre-season games do not have any importance apart from building momentum before the start of the league, but against a seemingly harmless opponent, it would have been nice to see Jose try out something different. He could have switched to a back three, played Mata through the middle, maybe could have moved Martial back to the left wing – the possibilities were endless. But sadly, Jose seemed content with the way things were.

Another glaring fact was the lack of creativity in this team. Sanchez tried a bit too much, but could not inspire. United were not creative enough, there were very few chances in the whole game and to think that they should rely on Paul Pogba alone for creativity is a dangerous proposition.