When asked six years ago whether Jose Mourinho should succeed Sir Alex Ferguson as Manchester United manager, club legend Sir Bobby Charlton's response was cutting. Referring to the incident where as Real Madrid head coach Mourinho poked the Barcelona assistant Tito Vilanova in the eye, Charlton said: "A United manager wouldn't do that."

An archetypal United manager would also not, as Mourinho is, be reluctant to play attacking football and promote young local talent. Given these philosophical tensions between club and manager, Manchester United hiring Mourinho two years ago always felt like a strange move. It was like the chairman of a team that yearns for disciplined defending thinking, "hmm, fancy a job Arsene?"

We should not therefore be too surprised by the swirling discontent that is currently enveloping Old Trafford. The limp 2-1 defeat to Sevilla on Tuesday night in the Champions League prompted boos from the home supporters and led to furious criticism of Mourinho's tactics.

Big questions are being asked of why Mourinho approached the tie so defensively, but the main question is surely: What exactly were United expecting when they hired Mourinho?

The characterisation of Mourinho as a negative manager has sometimes been exaggerated - his Real Madrid team once scored 121 goals in a single La Liga season - but clearly he was never going to play the shackle-free football that United believe is part of their DNA.