Henrikh Mkhitaryan
A world class playmaker on his day, Henrikh Mkhitaryan took some time to get going at United as Mourinho bizarrely kept him out of the team for the first few months of last season.
Once introduced, the Armenian showed his class, but he’s surely not playing under the right kind of manager to truly fulfill his enormous potential.
Mkhitaryan looked at his best under more attack-minded coaches like Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel, and Mourinho has shown time and time again that he never quite knows how best to utilise creative players of this kind.
Paul Pogba
Having emerged as one of the best midfielders in the world under the guidance of Antonio Conte at Juventus, it’s hard to argue Paul Pogba has consistently looked as good under Mourinho.
The France international was arguably played too often last term as he made 51 appearances in all competitions despite not having a proper pre-season.
Now injured, possibly from sheer burnout, Pogba has been greatly missed by a United side who are perhaps expecting him to do a little bit of everything in their midfield.
Despite being talented enough to play a variety of roles, Pogba surely shouldn’t be doing all of them at once, with a different manager perhaps being a bit more imaginative about a long-term settled role for the 24-year-old.
Romelu Lukaku
Finally, despite a strong start to this season, Romelu Lukaku has shown in recent games that he’s going to struggle to be the striker Mourinho wants him to be.
Cutting an isolated figure in games against Liverpool and Chelsea, Lukaku doesn’t look like he’s going to get the support he needs to truly shine due to working under such a defensive manager.
It’s easy to imagine that under a Conte or a Guardiola, Lukaku would be surrounded by more intricately-drilled attacking midfielders who’d play closer to him and give him more ammunition to end what is an admittedly poor big-game record.