Mourinho’s ideal Man United attacking trio claimed

Joe Williams

None of Jose Mourinho’s ideal attacking trio are at Manchester United, according to a journalist in the Manchester Evening News.

Speculation has suggested that United missed out on a number of targets over the last year or so, including Antoine Griezmann, Ivan Perisic and Willian.

The trio have remained at Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan and Chelsea respectively with Ed Woodward and the club not releasing the necessary funds to land those targets at the time.

And Samuel Luckhurst, the United editor at the Manchester Evening News, thinks the club will have to back Mourinho in the winter window so that he doesn’t miss out on more attacking talent.

“Henrikh Mkhitaryan, [Mino] Raiola relish sandwiched in between [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic and [Paul] Pogba, was a No.10 dressed up as a seven and lasted 18 month,” Luckhurst wrote.

“Mourinho was so appalled by his start he pondered selling the Armenian in the 2017 January transfer window until Mkhitaryan hit form in November.

“That still left United’s attack lopsided and the club failed with enquiries for Chelsea winger Willian until Woodward overruled Mourinho’s supposed ‘short-termism’ in the summer.

“Antoine Griezmann would have been a game-changer for United in that they would have assembled their frontline around a multi-functional forward rather than a figurehead.

“Mourinho had identified Griezmann as the ‘magician’ to wield the baton up front and the hope was Sanchez would offset that.

“Ivan Perisic was the target Mourinho ‘wanted most of all’ yet was not deemed marketable enough and additional funds were not made available.

“So the attacking triumvirate Mourinho would ideally have had was Perisic-Griezmann-Willian.

“Some United supporters will argue the available options are an upgrade on that trident.”

Alexis Sanchez has struggled so far this campaign with former Arsenal player Ian Wright claiming that no club would pay a fee for the Chilean in this form.