As Jose Mourinho was walking down the touchline towards the tunnel at Old Trafford on Wednesday evening following the Manchester derby in the League Cup, he looked towards the applauding Stretford End with an almost humiliated expression on his face. It was odd because his Manchester United team had just beaten their crosstown rivals Manchester City 1-0. Yes, it was against a depleted City side drafted for a League Cup tie – the tournament you really wish you can ignore but can’t – but still nothing to be ashamed of.

Then, Mourinho put out four fingers on one hand and made a zero with the thumb and index finger of the other, before folding both his hands together and bowing apologetically. Ah! It was for Sunday’s 4-0 humiliation by his former employers, Chelsea, which was also the biggest defeat Mourinho has endured in his three spells in English football.

Earlier in the match, Mourinho had hardly celebrated his team’s goal too. After watching Juan Mata side-foot the ball into the net, Mourinho raised his arms and celebrated on the touchline for a grand total of two seconds, before realising what he had done and then just walked back towards his seat.

The Humble One?

Mourinho could have been more thrilled with his team’s win. Not running-down-the-touchline thrilled, but a bit more jubilant and less embarrassed than he appeared on Wednesday. Yes, a near-full-strength Manchester United had not bossed the match completely against a City team that had nine different men starting from the one that drew 1-1 against Southampton on the weekend, but come on, Jose, at least a smile?

In all fairness, the last three days before the derby had not gone down to well for the Portuguese and his team. Following the Chelsea loss, apart from digging their dagger deep into his spine, the alert media had eavesdropped on his whisper into Blues manager Antonio Conte’s ear, where Mourinho apparently said that the Italian should not have celebrated like he did and egged the home crowd on after the score had become 4-0. Mourinho accused Conte of trying to humiliate him by doing so.

This particular incident had drawn even more criticism towards him, apart from the expected “Is Mourinho over?” articles and discussions. A day later, some other comments made by him made it to the back pages, this time about his life in Manchester, which he said was “a bit of a disaster” considering his family was in London, he was still living out of a hotel and could not go out for a meal.

Poor Jose – trying to gain some sympathy after being humiliated. Or typical Jose – already sowing the seeds of his exit strategy from Manchester lest things take a turn for the worse? Or was it just Jose being Jose – trying to deflect the media’s attention from his team to himself by cooking up controversies? It’s anyone’s guess.

Ideal combination

But through all that and his team’s performance on Wednesday, Mourinho would have, or should have, realised some things. The first is that Michael Carrick should be playing more often. After shipping four goals against Chelsea, United goalkeeper David De Gea had absolutely nothing to do against City, who failed to register a single shot on target.

And a lot of that was down to Carrick, who held up play brilliantly, sometimes even dropping further behind his CDM position to aid the centre-backs. His eye for a pass was immaculate as ever and as he distributed balls and orchestrated proceedings from behind, it allowed Ander Herrera to express his attacking and playmaking qualities in front. In the 85th minute of the match, his 35-year-old legs even managed to outrace City’s Sergio Aguero, seven years his junior. Carrick may not be able to play all of United’s matches, but like Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes before that, the team could use his experience and his calmness at least for the big fixtures.

Herrera was as incredible as he has been the last year or so. The Spaniard has easily been United’s best buy in the post-Alex Ferguson era. The €36 million that United paid for him under the Louis van Gaal regime, seems to be a steal right now. Not only is the Spaniard technically gifted, but he is an absolute midfield beast – always wanting and fighting for the ball, always the first to tackle, always the first to protest against a decision that does not go in his team’s favour and always the first to celebrate a goal regardless of whether he was involved in it. In just more than two seasons at Old Trafford, he already looks like a Manchester United man inside out – someone who could get the captain’s armband in the future.

Ahead of the brilliant Carrick and Herrera, Paul Pogba revelled in an attacking midfield trio. Having two wingers on either side allowed Pogba to play his natural attacking game a lot more than he could from the CDM position. And although the Frenchman has still not hit full throttle in his second spell at Old Trafford, he showed glimpses of what he is capable of. Morgan Schneiderlin, who came on as a second-half substitute, also showed enough promise to make him Carrick’s deputy. Overall, it was a solid midfield performance, one that was sorely lacking against Chelsea.

At the back, Marcos Rojo put in easily his best performance in the red jersey. United fans would have feared the worst when Eric Bailly hobbled off with a knee injury during the Chelsea game, but ever since he came on as a substitute during that match, it’s almost as if this is Rojo 2.0. Mourinho would have realised that the best position for the Argentine is centre-back and not full-back where he has been caught out in the past.

Elsewhere, Antonio Valencia, Marcus Rashford and Mata were their usual solid bests, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic managed to get an assist and could have had two more even after putting in a comically bad performance in the first half.

Not a success, nor a disaster

Overall, it wasn’t the greatest of Manchester United performances. Neither was it good enough to conclude that Mourinho is the saviour United has been looking for after the retirement of Ferguson, but at least it showed that the Portuguese is making some progress in figuring out what his ideal XI and combination should be.

It must not be easy cleaning up after two failed regimes. Both his predecessors, David Moyes and Van Gaal, had bought players and shaped the club differently. Mourinho has added to that mixture, he’s shaping his own philosophy and he has been in the job for less than four months. Even the club and the players have had to adjust to three different managers in the last four years. The squad is still evolving and it will be a while before a template is set.

It’s not been a great season so far for Manchester United, but it hasn’t been a disaster either. The Red Devils are still just six points off the top of the Premier League and alive in all other competitions they’re taking part in. And it’s just October. Where Mourinho is headed with this squad, if anywhere, would be clear by around February and perhaps that would be a more reasonable time to evaluate his performance.