JOSE MOURINHO was fired by Manchester United on Tuesday, two days after English soccer’s biggest club reached a new low in its disappointing season by losing to Liverpool in the Premier League.

Assistant coach Michael Carrick will take charge of the team on an interim basis. United said it will appoint a caretaker manager until the end of the season, but didn’t say who it will be.

United made its move with the team in sixth place in the league, 19 points behind first-place Liverpool and 11 points off fourth-place Chelsea in the race for Champions League qualification. It is United’s worst 17-game start to a league campaign since the 1990-91 season, and the team currently has a goal difference of zero.

Mourinho had also been unhappy that United’s board failed to back his wish to sign a central defender in the offseason. United has already conceded more goals in the league than it did in all of last season.

Mourinho’s final match in charge was the 3-1 loss at Anfield, after which he said his players were brittle and couldn’t cope with the intensity and physicality of Liverpool — historically United’s biggest rival.

United reached the last 16 in the Champions League, where it will play Paris Saint-Germain over two legs in February and March.

United won two titles in Mourinho’s first season — the English League Cup and the Europa League — but failed to capture a trophy in his second season, although the runner-up spot in the league was its highest finish since Ferguson left.

Mourinho has historically encountered problems in his third season in charge at clubs he has managed, and it was no different at United.

His relationship with Paul Pogba, United’s record signing at US$116 million and the marquee arrival in Mourinho’s reign, appeared broken following a spat that started in the offseason.

Pogba, who hasn’t started for United in its last three games, wrote on Instagram “Caption this!” alongside a picture of him smirking in a post published soon after the announcement of Mourinho’s departure. It was quickly deleted.

Mourinho has also publicly criticized other players, including Luke Shaw and Anthony Martial, during his reign. By the end, it felt as if Mourinho was unloved and increasingly alienated.

United also lost 3-1 to Manchester City in the league in recent weeks in another display that highlighted the team’s demise.

A serial winner of trophies throughout his coaching career — his title haul currently stands at 25 — Mourinho arrived at Old Trafford in 2016 as a supposed quick fix for United following its struggles after the retirement of Ferguson three years earlier.

(SD-Agencies)