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