Manchester United and Jose Mourinho may be stuck with one another

When Jose Mourinho was asked after the match about his missing central defender - the one he had asked Ed Woodward to buy - he simply said the transfer window was closed and would re-open on the first of January. Having seen United roll over to Brighton in a 3-2 loss, it would be little surprise to see a new manager welcoming whomever Woodward decides to buy for the club.

There will be even less surprise if Woodward elects, instead of buying an experienced central defender who can lead one of Marcos Rojo, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Victor Lindelof or Eric Bailly, to sign another player with a big Instagram following. Just as he pursued Sergio Ramos, Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo to no effect, and just as he signed Juan Mata without properly consulting David Moyes, United are at the mercy of a transfer policy devised by a man who evidently doesn’t understand football.

It is clear, though, that the problems are now more immediate than worrying about whatever mistakes Woodward is planning on making. Attention should focus on Mourinho’s attitude, and the disaster he served up on the pitch against Brighton.

Mourinho has a reputation as a defensive coach, and it is one that he has fairly earned over most of his career. He prefers to operate with an experienced group of players, and he has always had central defenders to repel most of what the opposition throw at him. With Bailly and Lindelof, he has two players he does not trust as a pair. They need a leader alongside them, instead they have each other. Mourinho’s failure is two-fold. One, buying them, and two, failing to coach any improvement in the absence of new players.

One option for United would be to put the emphasis on the attack and hope that it goes some way to mitigate the weaknesses at the back. A fairly limited Brighton had no trouble slaloming towards goal against them, but perhaps worse was that they were comfortable in defence, too. This side has Fred, Jesse Lingard, Paul Pogba, Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, Romelu Lukaku and Juan Mata. A coach should be able to keep a mid-table side, let alone Brighton, on the back foot with attacking options like that. Instead, United were blunt and devoid of imagination.

And they did not just lack imagination; there was a remarkable lack of vim. Pogba’s contribution besides a penalty was a string of pointless fouls and loose passes. Martial looks moody as a default, but looked here as if someone had dumped in his mouth and told him it was a sundae. There are plenty of stories of Mourinho and Pogba falling out, not just last week but over the course of last season. If neither Mourinho nor Pogba can rouse themselves from their slumber, then there is little point in either of them staying.

But what are the alternatives? For the defence, John Terry is available on a free transfer, but it would be a ridiculous gamble two games into a new season. Perhaps Claudio Marchisio could come in on a free transfer to allow Nemanja Matic to drop back into central defence. This is hardly a compelling solution, but the alternatives are Mourinho to turn around the state of the current squad - that seems unlikely. For the manager, there’s Zinedine Zidane, but this is a man who left Real Madrid when Florentino Perez wouldn’t do in the transfer market as he wished. It makes zero sense, then, to go from the frying pan to the man who would manage to set fire to water if given half a chance. United are stuck until something better becomes obvious. They may be waiting some time.