5 reasons why Jose Mourinho’s days at Manchester United could be numbered

#3 Differences with players building

Mourinho no longer seems to have the trust of his players. It started with his hard love treatment with Mkhitaryan and Luke Shaw. While there seemed to be initial results, Mkhitaryan never fulfilled his potential and left as a player disillusioned.

Shaw has put his head down and worked hard, but even then Mourinho’s repeated public criticism of the young left-back left a bad taste. He had his differences with Pogba last season and things do not seem to have changed for the good. The Martial episode in preseason blew the lid off the Portuguese manager’s poor treatment of the Frenchman.

Even his derogatory comments about the United youngsters in preseason showed a lack of class. And the most baffling of it all - how is it that one of the stars of the World Cup winning side looks so ineffective under Mourinho?

While it is too soon to draw any conclusions, the number of players who are falling out with Mourinho seems to be increasing swiftly and if this continues, it won’t be long before he loses the dressing room. Against Brighton, the players were extremely poor, but it seemed that they were not responding to Mourinho anymore. That in itself looks like a bad sign.