If there is still some debate about whether Jose Mourinho’s “bad third season” is a genuine problem or a mere product of coincidence, one thing is certain about the current situation at Manchester United. Everything that could possibly be put in place to set up that bad third season is there, as was so pointedly indicated by the Portuguese’s sour mood after the FA Cup final.

Mourinho doesn’t even have the positive of a second-season title, the previously customary victory that has always vindicated his “emotionally intense” managerial approach. That is why the FA Cup has developed even more importance in defeat. The hard edges of this trying season did not have a soft landing. They did not have the release of victory, that suddenly makes everything seem so much better. Existing issues always feel so much worse in such circumstances, and some of those have worsened here.

While there is not quite widespread disgruntlement in the squad, there is disquiet, with the majority of the players constantly on edge because of the mood a regularly surly Mourinho creates.

FA Cup final player ratings: Manchester United vs Chelsea Show all 22 1 /22 FA Cup final player ratings: Manchester United vs Chelsea FA Cup final player ratings: Manchester United vs Chelsea <b>Chelsea:</b> Thibaut Courtois - 7 Started in his first FA Cup game since last season’s final. Had little to do in the first half but commanded his area well with the low evening sun in his eyes. Produced two standout saves in the second half to tip Phil Jones’s header away from goal, then to rush out and deny Marcus Rashford when he was through on goal. Getty FA Cup final player ratings: Manchester United vs Chelsea Cesar Azpilicueta - 8 Read the game very well on numerous occasions and put in one particularly good interception to deny Paul Pogba a chance to shoot from the edge of the box. A very impressive defensive display. Getty FA Cup final player ratings: Manchester United vs Chelsea Gary Cahill - 7 Captained the side after being called up to Gareth Southgate’s England World Cup squad. Barked orders all afternoon and held the Chelsea defence together. Getty FA Cup final player ratings: Manchester United vs Chelsea Antonio Rudiger - 7 Put in some very good recovery tackles when Marcos Alonso had been caught out high up the pitch. Getty FA Cup final player ratings: Manchester United vs Chelsea Victor Moses - 6 Was second best against Ashley Young and gave away a concerning number of fouls around the Chelsea penalty area. Getty FA Cup final player ratings: Manchester United vs Chelsea N'Golo Kante - 7 A vintage N’Golo Kante performance. He covered so much of the midfield and frequently popped up to win the ball back for his side. Getty FA Cup final player ratings: Manchester United vs Chelsea Tiemoue Bakayoko - 7 Started fairly well and put some of his poor early season form behind him. Getty FA Cup final player ratings: Manchester United vs Chelsea Cesc Fabregas - 7 Very good pass to Hazard to set him away to win the penalty. The weight of the ball took Jones out the game and invited Hazard to latch onto it and run through on goal. Getty FA Cup final player ratings: Manchester United vs Chelsea Marcos Alonso - 6 Should have made it 2-0 when N’Golo Kante put the ball on a plate for him in the box but he took a touch then had a shot saved by David de Gea. Getty FA Cup final player ratings: Manchester United vs Chelsea Eden Hazard - 10 Won and converted a penalty in the first half. Every time he got on the ball he caused the Manchester United defenders problems. His pace and close control bought him a penalty at the expense of Phil Jones and he showed great composure to slot the ball in from the spot. An absolute joy to watch, unless you're a Manchester United fan. Getty FA Cup final player ratings: Manchester United vs Chelsea Olivier Giroud - 6 Fired Chelsea into the final with a fine individual effort against Southampton. Picked up his fourth FA Cup winners medal after not having a huge hand in the game. Getty FA Cup final player ratings: Manchester United vs Chelsea <b>Manchester United:</b> David De Gea - 7 Started in place of United’s cup goalkeeper Sergio Romero. Dived the wrong way when Hazard scored from the spot. Saved well from Alonso to keep it 1-0 Getty FA Cup final player ratings: Manchester United vs Chelsea Antonio Valencia - 6 Very poor going forward and lacked the ability to play decisive and accurate passes in the final third. Improved as the game aged and played some nice through balls from deep. Getty FA Cup final player ratings: Manchester United vs Chelsea Phil Jones - 3 Had a very poor first half and conceded a penalty in the 22nd minute when he brought down Hazard who raced away from him after beating him in a sprint race. Getty FA Cup final player ratings: Manchester United vs Chelsea Chris Smalling - 7 Olivier Giroud had a fairly quiet first half and this was down to Chris Smalling who won most the battles he needed to. Getty FA Cup final player ratings: Manchester United vs Chelsea Ashley Young - 6 Provided an outlet for Manchester United but his intentions were fairly predictable when he had the ball at his feet. Getty FA Cup final player ratings: Manchester United vs Chelsea Nemanja Matic - 6 Won and lost an FA Cup final for Chelsea. May have had his heart in his mouth when Tiemoue Bakayoko went down under his challenge in the box, but nothing was given. Getty FA Cup final player ratings: Manchester United vs Chelsea Ander Herrera - 5 Was tasked with tightly marking Eden Hazard when Chelsea got on the ball, which is fine except he looked lost when United turned over possession. Getty FA Cup final player ratings: Manchester United vs Chelsea Paul Pogba - 6 Showed glimpses of what he is capable of. In the last moments of the first half his driving run from his own half set up a very good chance for Marcus Rashford. Should have scored when he was unmarked from a corner but glanced a header from the six-yard box wide. Getty FA Cup final player ratings: Manchester United vs Chelsea Jesse Lingard - 5 Endured a very frustrating first half and really struggled to get on the ball and influence the game. Came off in the 73rd minute. Getty FA Cup final player ratings: Manchester United vs Chelsea Alexis Sanchez - 6 Had some nice touches on the ball but went very deep in search of possession which limited his influence. Getty FA Cup final player ratings: Manchester United vs Chelsea Marcus Rashford - 5 Started in place of Romelu Lukaku who revealed to Jose Mourinho he would only be fit enough for the bench. Had a first half to forget, which was optimised when he blew a great chance in front of goal by scuffing a shot from close range. Made way for Lukaku after 73 minutes. Getty

He has naturally been in surlier mood since Wembley, and barely spoke to his squad or United employees after the game, having done the bare minimum in a prickly post-game press conference.

And this is the main thing. It is not that the players are feeling mutinous, as has been the case at Real Madrid and Chelsea. It is that Mourinho doesn’t completely trust so many of them.

This is where the potential for problems most lies, and this is best indicated by his current attitude to some of the players who have been proper soldiers for him; who he had so talked up.

Along with Nemanja Matic and David De Gea, for example, Romelu Lukaku had been one of United’s best performers and one of those Mourinho was most happy with over the long last eight months. In the space of a mere two weeks, though, the Portuguese has become irritated by how the Belgian was not ready for the FA Cup final. The unsaid suspicion lingers that Lukaku was too conscious of ensuring he was right for the World Cup.

Eric Bailly has previously been described by Mourinho as a centre-half with the talent to soon be the best in the world, but that belief hasn’t stopped him being frozen out over the last few weeks. Even the other United players have been puzzled, particularly given the manager claimed it was to allow his other defenders to make their World Cup squad. Club sources say Mourinho has become fed up at how often he can’t pick Bailly, for a variety of reasons. The United boss is said to have become so annoyed that he wouldn’t be against selling the Ivorian this summer, as he targets Tottenham Hotspur’s Toby Alderweireld in his place.

Bailly's United future looks bleak (Getty)

There was then someone he lionised in last season’s Europa League run in Marcus Rashford. Mourinho is losing patience. He is said to just be frustrated that, given his talent, Rashford is not closer to a fully-formed centre-forward.

That is naturally difficult for a youngster of that age, but not as difficult as it is to escape the fact that so many of these problems come back to core themes of Mourinho’s career, core arguments for why those bad third seasons happen.

It is so often said that the Portuguese doesn’t trust in youth, doesn’t properly build or plan for the medium to long term, because his question of what players can do for him “now” ultimately overtakes all. This is why it is the case that so many talented attackers are drummed out after one bad game, with little time to breathe, only to be abruptly put in just as quickly. There is little patience.

Mourinho is losing patience in Rashford (Getty)

There is then his evident lack of patience for these fitness issues.

The word most commonly used in Mourinho’s transfer discussions is “warriors”. He wants a much stronger mentality, in a squad he feels is much more psychologically weak than he would like. He wants those players who are willing to play through the pain, of the type he had his greatest successes with at Porto, Internazionale and his first Chelsea side.

There is a fair debate to be had over whether that type of player really exists to anything like the same degree. Mourinho and Arsene Wenger have had many differences, but this is one thing they might greatly agree on. After one of his last Arsenal games, Wenger was having a drink with colleagues, and spoke of his frustration at how difficult it is to get a response out of modern players. He just feels they’re so different to his first few squads at Arsenal, and require more indulging… a different approach.

Mourinho isn't getting the response he wants from his players (Getty)

The problem for these giants of the 2004-05 season is that, in 2018, managers like Pep Guardiola and Mauricio Pochettino don’t seem to have such difficulties in getting those responses. It might be down to something as simple as these are the personality types Guardiola and Pochettino first came across as managers, so this is just what they’re accustomed to, but it has created complications for Wenger and Mourinho.

For everything that happened with Dr Eva Carneiro at Chelsea, the departure of Mourinho's great warrior Didier Drogba that same summer was said to be just as significant. The Ivorian knew Mourinho well, and loved him, but also knew that he needed to explain to the younger players how the Portuguese worked. Drogba knew he needed to let some of them know that, if the boss castigated them, it wasn’t necessarily the end-of-days judgement on them they thought. He was a key buffer.

Mourinho hasn't got a Drogba figure to turn to in the United dressing room (Getty Images)

The very popular Rui Faria was said to serve a similar role at United, and he is going now too. This is one other reason why Mourinho’s lack of trust in players could have much more consequence in 2018-19.

New assistant Michael Carrick could feasibly fill that role, but he is not part of Mourinho’s circle. He is someone admired by the club in general.

That is not to say it will lead to other problems, but Carrick can’t possibly be expected to do what Drogba or Faria did, given he has only worked with the Portuguese for two years.

United's backroom team will look very different next season (Getty)

The blunt reality is that those two years at Old Trafford have left Mourinho no closer to anything he sees like an ideal team.

He still wants those four or five or final signings - except that was very much the message last summer, and in 2016. The squad has not been moulded to his image. In that regard, the bottom line is that there are already more fault-lines in this squad than there was in Chelsea 2006, Real Madrid 2012 or Chelsea 2015.

That doesn’t necessarily mean they will give way to fissures, and Mourinho’s current mood will of course gradually give way to readiness for next season. This sourness won't last. Take Lukaku. Those who know the situation well say this FA Cup final issue will be forgotten, and that his specific qualities have made him far too important to Mourinho’s system. They also point to how it was very similar with Eden Hazard in 2014, only for the Belgian to them fire him to the title.

Jose Mourinho discusses Michael Carrick's future as assistant manager

United are not expected to do that, and there is now an acceptance around the club that City are so far ahead as a side, but Mourinho is expected to get four to five main signings in. They will likely be Alderweireld, Willian, Fred and/or Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and one of Kieran Tierney or Alex Sandro.

Those purchases would greatly bring up the average age of the squad, and maybe bring it up to the level of competitiveness Mourinho would like.

Whether it can finally represent a third way for the Portuguese in a third season remains to be seen.