Why his third will be the new second season for Mourinho at Manchester United

Manchester United v Southampton - Premier League

There are three certainties in life: Death, taxes, and Mourinho winning the league in his second season at a club. At least there were.

Like every good old film, Mourinho's reign at a club has three stages

(i) The First year - The year where he introduces his protagonists, his on-field warriors, and leaders who he uses to get his message across to the team.The year does not bring much success but brings a semblance of stable outlook to the club with a clear vision and playing style and a manager the players believe in.

(ii) The Second year - The main plot of the story where the protagonists take the lead and get the message across to the other players and galvanise the squad as they blindly follow their manager's instructions and obliterate every opponent on their path to success. The league title usually follows, with his protagonists usually taking center-stage.

(iii) The Third year- The climax or anti-climax where the players become emotionally and physically drained of his methods and reach a breaking point when they start to revolt against him behind his back with the protagonists taking center-stage here too. Below par performances and controversies follow eventually leading to his sacking. He joins another club and the cycle continues

This has been the story of his career so far and so United fans could be forgiven for harboring dreams of league title no.21 this season as there are few things more certain in life than Mourinho winning the league in his second season at a club.

For the first time in his career, Mourinho has deviated from the script due to factors both external and internal as next set of slides explain and also why he is to replicate his second season syndrome in his third season at United

Starting from scratch

Terry and Lampard were crucial to Mourinho's fortunes at Chelsea

In every club Mourinho has managed so far, he had a base i.e 3 or 4 world class players around whom he could build his squad upon for example he had Terry, Lampard and Cech in his first stint at Chelsea; Ronaldo,Casillas,Ramos and Alonso at Madrid; Eto'o, Zanetti and Sneijder at Inter and Hazard,Cech,Cahill and Terry again in his second stint at Chelsea.

This meant he could find the weaknesses of his squad in his first season and buy players to plug these gaps and he would have his title-winning XI. He never had to build from the base at any of the previous clubs he has managed.

But then the magnitude of job he took at United was unlike anything else he had seen so far.The squad was in dire need of a reboot as there was too much deadwood in the squad and the only world-class player he had was David De Gea which says much about the squad he inherited. He had to build the squad from the scratch

Mourinho did not have any on-field leaders in his squad and therefore he made it his priority to sign players who he could build his team around which was why he bought Zlatan,Pogba,Mkhitaryan and Bailly in his first season,all who had a strong personality and were leaders on the pitch.But with exception of Zlatan who papered over the cracks,the rest did not perform at the level Mourinho required.

Zlatan, Bailly, and Pogba were brought in to act as Mourinho's on-field leaders

This season he bought in Lukaku and Matic players he had previously worked with as his go-to men in the dressing room and on the pitch and they have been his star performers throughout the campaign but others have not been to their level which is part of the reason why United have failed to mount a title challenge this season.

Unable to find his Starting XI

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It is a known fact that Jose Mourinho likes to work with small squads. He is not a big fan of rotation and once settles on a starting XI rarely rotates his squad.Once he finds his winning XI he rarely changes it.

So it was no surprise that he had a settled starting XI and 2 or 3 impact subs at all of his previous club and rarely changes the line-up except in case of injuries and suspensions.He used a total of only 15 players in his title-winning season at Chelsea and he had a settled starting XI at rest of his clubs.

Arguing Mourinho is yet to find his starting XI at United would be an understatement as the only untouchables in his squad as of now would be De Gea, Matic, Lukaku, Valencia and Young the last two due to lack of options.

Even Pogba's place in the squad has is not set in stone and there are still many places up for grabs in this United side as Mourinho has chopped and changed so much that United have lacked the cohesion and coordination in their play which has led to their downfall sometimes.

Mourinho now has a spine to build his side upon and is sure to plug the holes in his squad next season where he would find his ideal starting XI.

Freak of a Season for Manchester City

Old Friends share a laugh

If United had won against Brighton last night and also won their remaining games, they will finish the season on 86 points.That would have been enough to win title in 10 seasons over the past 20 years

With all due respect to Guardiola and his City team who have been exhilarating to watch at times, this has been a dream year for them where everything they touched has turned to goals and they are on course on to break the record for most no.of points, no.of goals scored, no.of wins and many more.

Mourinho will have expected a stern challenge from Guardiola but even the City manager would not have forecast that they would be having the season at the start of the year.

Mourinho could have bettered his best ever points tally, 95 for Chelsea in 2004/05 and it would still have not mattered as City have been that good this season.

City will surely improve next season but may not quite hit the heights of this season and Mourinho will be better equipped to take them on next seas