JOSE MOURINHO faces a battle to change the instincts of his players.
The new boss is just starting to discover the scale of the job he faces at Old Trafford as he rips up the failed Louis van Gaal playbook.
United’s fans yawned their way through most of last season and although Mourinho is fully determined to ditch the infamous LVG ‘philosophy’, he knows it will take time.
The squad seems stuck in a rut of sideways passing, slow build-up and man-marking.
Mourinho hopes to see progress in today’s Community Shield against Premier League champions Leicester.
But he knows that with the Premier League kicking off next weekend, change must come sooner rather than later.
Mourinho said: “I cannot tell you that we are going to start the season at 100 miles per hour. We need time.
“If you are a right-back or a left-back, every time you have the ball you pass to a central defender and you repeat that for two years.
“Because I tell him, ‘Get the ball and look for solutions in between the lines and look for solutions in the space behind,’ does not mean that they are going to do that.
“In training, yes. You stop, you speak, you repeat. In competition, no — the ball arrives and you have no time for that.
“You go for automatic, the instinct, so the dynamic is very difficult.
“For a central defender to mark man-to-man and to chase his opponent, even if the opponent goes 15 or 20 metres away from him.
“Now, we play zonal. You don’t follow the man and we make the team compact.
“Between our positions, we mark the movement of the opponent. It is a completely different profile, it takes time.”
Van Gaal delivered the FA Cup in May but United only scored 49 Premier League goals last season — just one more than relegation battlers Sunderland — and were pipped to a Champions League spot by Manchester City.
Former Chelsea and Real Madrid chief Mourinho did not directly criticise his predecessor LVG.
But he made it very clear that he hopes to have the United faithful on their feet singing, not booing, as they often did to the stubborn Dutchman.
Mourinho added: “I am not saying all that is wrong. I am saying it is not my way to do it. It would be easier to get new players and start with them from zero than to get a squad that was previously with a top manager but with different ideas than mine.
“I have two choices. One is: OK, let’s go the same way because I am afraid to change things.
“Or, I want to change. But, again, It can take some time.
“I made that decision and the players are now working really hard to go in my direction now.
“I am sure that they will get there, when you see the way they try.
“Sometimes we feel that contradiction between what they are used to doing and what they want to do.
“From the mental point of view, it is not easy to adapt.”
United have been installed as second favourites behind rivals City to finish the season as champions.
Mourinho will relish renewing his La Liga rivalry with new Etihad boss Pep Guardiola, after the pair clashed bitterly when they bossed Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid.
And the Special One even welcomed United fans’ lust for instant success instead of shying away from it.
He said: “It’s nothing new to me. Everywhere I’ve had to cope with that situation. It doesn’t matter where I am, everyone expects big things.
“I like to create that expectation. I like the players to feel it.
“Sometimes during my career I’ve created some unrealistic targets — and by creating these you push the team to unexpected levels.
“To win the Champions League with Porto or Inter is unexpected and a very risky objective. To win the championships in the first season is a little bit the same — but I like that.
“People see it as arrogant, that’s not a problem for me.
“The reality is I always feel that for players, managers and clubs, establishing very difficult targets can only help us.”
United fans will be walking along Wembley Way today with a spring in their step now that they have a boss of Mourinho’s calibre at the helm.
And if he gives his team the belief he has, they could be back in the Community Shield next year as champions.
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