Jose Mourinho and Manchester United are finally firing on all fronts… they’re going to be hard to stop this season
Alan Shearer reckons the Red Devils have finally adjusted to their boss' tactics and new signings only makes them better
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THE thumping 4-0 wins Manchester United have enjoyed in their opening Premier League games have raised expectations among their fans.
Everywhere else we are told it’s a marathon not a sprint, it’s only two games — and to be fair — West Ham and Swansea are more likely to be fighting to avoid the drop than for any titles.
United manager Jose Mourinho is attempting to dampen these expectations by pointing to the fact that they won their first three games of last season — and still finished sixth.
But those performances in beating Bournemouth and Hull away plus Southampton at home this time last year, were not a patch on what we have seen in their first 180 minutes of the new season.
I tipped Manchester United to win the title and the very early evidence has simply strengthened my view.
This is a team with all the ingredients to do it. They are big and powerful — with pace on the pitch and strength in depth off it.
Few can call on players with the talent of Anthony Martial or Ander Herrera late in games. Teams are supposed to look weaker when they make changes. This side seems to get stronger with the fresh legs.
The main thing they were missing last year, of course, was a man to convert all those draws into wins.
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With Zlatan Ibrahimovic, for all his efforts, they had a striker at 35-years-old coming to the end of his career. But in Romelu Lukaku, at 24, they have one entering what should be his peak years.
What any striker needs when he joins a club, particularly when it is for a huge transfer fee, is a good start. Well, with three goals in his opening two games, Lukaku has certainly had that and you can see the confidence in him.
On Saturday, there was some criticism about his movement in the link-up play. Yet Mourinho said in the summer he was not interested in all that and he was not that type of player.
He just wanted a goalscorer operating in and around the box to put the ball away. All this business about strikers dropping deep to link up play is overrated in my opinion anyway.
In my time at Newcastle, if we were going through a bad spell I found myself dropping deeper to help my team-mates.
But at the same time, this was negating my greatest strength. When we were playing well and I was on the shoulder of the last defender, we were dangerous.
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There is enough creativity in that Manchester United team right now as it is. It seems to have a lot more pace and energy, with more players now confident enough to run beyond the ball.
Marcus Rashford, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Juan Mata all have quite enough ability to threaten and open up a defence without the need for Lukaku to come back and join in. Just stay up there and finish it off.
Behind that three there is of course Paul Pogba, who already looks to have greatly benefited from a season bedding back in at the club after he left for Juventus.
The arrival of Nemanja Matic certainly looks to have freed him to roam. What on earth were Chelsea doing letting Matic go to one of their big rivals? Ridiculous.
At the back, Eric Bailly and Phil Jones have started well but have not been tested yet. If that partnership is going to work in the long term, then Phil Jones has to stay fit — and that is a big if.
Keeper David De Gea has had to do more in the warm-ups than the matches so far but, in him, United have one of the best.
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Teams will be very wary of this United side and defend deep and in numbers to try to nullify them. It has happened in the first two games.
Yet the strength and height in this side makes them a real threat at set-pieces to break any stranglehold opponents try to put on games, as we have already seen. Once they are ahead and gaps open up, they can then slice teams apart.
Of course there are bigger challenges to come, not least from Manchester City, who are the only squad I can see beating Manchester United to the title this season. But it is so far, so good as they try to build on the momentum of their cup double last season.
The manager is a serial winner, he knows how to get these jobs done — particularly in his second season.
Four years after Sir Alex Ferguson bowed out, it seems they are back and that is a big worry for everybody else.