When Jose Mourinho became Manchester United manager back in May, he didn’t waste any time in putting his own stamp on proceedings at Old Trafford.
Players who Mourinho judged to be not good enough were shipped out and many of Louis van Gaal’s coaching staff were also moved on to make room the Portuguese’s own trusted lieutenants.
Many of the club’s medical department survived the cut, however, the Man United boss is less than impressed with his team’s injury record so far this season.
According to The Times, Mourinho is concerned by the amount of knocks his players have picked up and would like the club to review the medical department in order to ‘seek improvements’.
Much has been made of Mourinho’s comments regarding the fitness of Luke Shaw and Chris Smalling last week but his worries extend much further as a number of his key stars have had to miss matches through injury.
The news that Marouane Fellaini has picked up an injury on international duty this week is unlikely to make Mourinho any happier too.
But the United manager isn’t immune to criticism himself and his own methods have reportedly come under fire from Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
In the same article in the Times, the striker feels like he has lost some of his sharpness since moving to Old Trafford as a result of Mourinho’s preference for more ball-orientated training.
Ibrahimovic, who ended his recent drought in front of goal with two strikes against Swansea on Sunday, believes United need to be doing more aerobic work on the training ground.
As Man United rank the lowest in the Premier League in terms of collective distance covered during matches, there might be some truth behind the Swedish forward’s concerns.
And Ibrahimovic isn’t the only player who has fears Mourinho will need to address.
Shaw has been heavily criticised in public by his manager on numerous occasions already this season after struggling to reach the same level of form he showed last year before suffering a double leg break.
But the left-back has reportedly told friends that he is worried he might never be able to win Mourinho over.
The 21-year-old snubbed the Portuguese manager when he was at Chelsea to join Man United and Shaw thinks it could still be counting against him.
It’s clear that not everything is quite right at Carrington at the moment and it has been reflected in Red Devils’ inconsistent results and performances this season.
Mourinho will need to nip it in the bud as soon as possible to avoid following David Moyes and Van Gaal out of the exit doors at Old Trafford.