The United manager has over and again condemned his group out in the open this season and the 53-year-old should ponder changing his approach, as per Steven Sylvester who works with Premier League players as well as world champions from different sports. Jose Mourinho’s dull face on the inability to win the “hearts and minds” of his players since landing at Manchester United could demonstrate his defeat, believes a main British sports psychologist.
“It’s very strange. In my experience I haven’t seen him [Jose Mourinho] constantly criticise players in the media, this is a new style from him,” Sylvester said. “Although they must have done something to make him question if these players are at standard he wants, I think it is a way to mask his frustration that he can’t get the team delivering according to his mandate”
He further said, “The whole point of good leadership is to win the hearts and minds and if you criticise players in the press you’re going against that.
“The players will sit there in the dressing room thinking, ‘who’s next, what happens if this goes wrong today?’ It creates more fear within the culture than joy.”
Mourinho, who has made an underwhelming start at United, recently said his living arrangements in Manchester have been a “bit of a disaster”. He illustrated himself squatted in his lodging, alone without his family and not able to wander out to nearby restaurants because of the prospect of being hassled by fans and photographers. Sylvester stated that,
“For me Mourinho is in major transition as how to build a new culture at Manchester United. He is not going to go to the media and talk about what he is doing to get the culture changed and to get the performance right or how he is assessing the players, so he has to talk about something else. He has been one of the best at being able to take people away from the scent of what he is really doing. I think it’s probably tactical”.
