Here’s a look back at Manchester United’s 2016/17 season, the first for “Special One” Jose Mourinho, and one of huge vindication for him.
It is impossible to talk about Manchester United’s 2016/17 season and not start with Jose Mourinho, who had replaced Louis van Gaal the season before.
This was a marriage many years in the making, but both the club and the manager found each other at their lowest ebb.
What followed was the brightest (false) dawn that hinted at a future where Mourinho and Man Utd would write stories of vindication for years ahead.
- Manager: Jose Mourinho
It started with a certain Zlatan Ibrahimovic announcing his own signing before the club did, and ended on a bright note.
Man Utd 2016/17 season outcome and top scorer
- Premier League position – 6th
- FA Cup – Quarter-Finals
- EFL Cup – Winners
- Community Shield – Winners
- Europa League – Winners
- Top scorer – Zlatan Ibrahimovic
The Man Utd shirt was too heavy for many players, but for Ibrahimovic, it wasn’t heavy enough, as he relished the role of Old Trafford’s “Messiah” en route to bagging 28 goals in all competitions before being cruelly injured.
United broke the club record to engineer a “Pogback”, buying Paul Pogba in a deal that would dominate media discussions until his departure years later.
2016/17 transfers in and out
Transfers in
- Eric Bailly (Villarreal)
- Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Dortmund)
- Paul Pogba (Juventus)
- Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Free)
Transfers out
- Memphis Depay (Lyon)
- Morgan Schneiderlin (Everton)
- Bastian Schweinsteiger (Released)
Memorable matches of 2016/17
The 2016/17 season leaves us spoiled for choices when it comes to memorable matches, since three trophy-winning finals automatically make the list.
Here’s choosing the other two, which were the strongest from a narrative perspective, to pick five.
Man Utd 2-1 Leicester City
There isn’t a better way to kick off your managerial tenure than by winning a trophy, and Mourinho was given that chance as Van Gaal won the FA Cup a year before.
They were up against Leicester City, the surprise PL champions of the previous year, and this game marked the arrival of Zlatan Ibrahimovic to English football.
The towering Swede scored the winner in the 83rd minute to mark his competitive debut and set the tone for a brilliant season for him.
Trophy No. 1, in the bag.
Chelsea 4-0 Man Utd
In a season that gave three trophies, putting in a 4-0 loss at a rival is a questionable choice for “memorable”, but this was the catalyst to making it all happen.
Mourinho went to his old hunting ground to take on Antonio Conte, the new saviour of Stamford Bridge.
United were taught a footballing lesson, Mourinho was Judas, and there was no love lost between Conte and Mourinho in a fiery contest.
This was United’s third loss in their first nine league games. After this, United stopped messing about, and only lost two more games the whole season in the league, including a memorable 2-0 win at home to Chelsea, famous for Ander Herrera’s man-marking job on Eden Hazard.
Judas proved he was No. 1.
Man Utd 3-0 St Etienne
Man Utd’s Europa League campaign was off to a successful, albeit unconvincing start as they finished second in the group behind Fenerbahce.
Up next was AS Saint Etienne of France in the knockout round. Ibrahimovic got the memo of the big game as he bagged a brilliant hat-trick to end the round as a contest with a 3-0 win.
It set them on their way to a trophy that would save their season. Ibrahimovic wouldn’t play in the final due to an injury, but he was why United were there in the first place.
Man Utd 3-2 Southampton
Mourinho was repeating his trick of targeting a trophy in his first season, and Southampton stood as the final obstacle in that race for the EFL Cup.
It was that man Ibrahimovic again who stood tall when the stakes were high, scoring a brace to give United a 3-2 win that their performance on the day didn’t merit.
Lingard scored the other goal to continue his own cult hero status of scoring in big games.
Trophy No. 2, in the bag.
Man Utd 2-0 Ajax
No prizes for guessing the final entry on the list, as United triumphed against Ajax in the Europa League final to secure Champions League qualification.
With this, United complete the troika of European trophies in their ranks, and Mourinho served vindication to all those who questioned him.
His rant after the final about “poets” and how they talk but never win anything lives long in the memory of Man Utd fans.
Mourinho had won, and he had won three trophies. He wasn’t letting anyone exclude the Community Shield.
Pogba and Mkhitaryan being the goal scorers in the final vindicated his transfer window, and the image of Bailly and Ibrahimovic running onto the pitch and throwing their crutches around is a classic.
Other notable moments in the 2016/17 season
Beyond these games, the season was full of notable moments. Mourinho renewed his rivalry with Pep Guardiola, who had rocked up in the blue half of Manchester.
There was Mkhitaryan’s remarkable scorpion kick goal against Sunderland, which stands as one of the greatest in the league’s history to date.
Marouane Fellaini’s late-game battering ram role earned him cult status among fans despite his signing being an unpopular one.
The image of Pogba and Mourinho celebrating the final win would age terribly after a fallout soon after, while Mkhitaryan would be exchanged for Alexis Sanchez in one of the worst swap deals of all time.
United built on this success to finish a distant second in the 2017/18 season, which Mourinho said is the greatest accomplishment of his career.
Everything fell apart soon after, as United embarked on another rebuild…
from United In Focus https://ift.tt/rtyC0LU