Jose Mourinho's pantomime act is wearing thin at Manchester United.
I take no pleasure in saying it, because I have been one of his biggest fans and I tipped United for the title before a ball was kicked in August.
But in the derby defeat by Manchester City at Old Trafford, it looked like there was one team trying to win it and the other trying not to lose it.
And for arguably the biggest club in the world – a club whose whole ethos is based on the attacking flair and style of Busby and Ferguson – 35 per cent possession at home is not going to keep the supporters happy.
When I saw the teamsheet, and Mourinho had picked four forwards, I thought he was going to go for it.
But as my Mirror Sport colleague Simon Mullock put it, I can’t understand why he selected four Rolls Royce players up front and asked them to play like double decker buses.
And whatever happened in the tunnel afterwards, Mourinho has to be careful when he claims that it was a “question of diversity” in behaviour and education.
This is, after all, the man who ran along the touchline at Old Trafford and performed an extravagant knee-slide when his Porto team knocked United out of the Champions League in 2004.
And this is the man who ran across the pitch at the Nou Camp to celebrate when Inter Milan knocked Barcelona out in the semi-finals seven years ago.
Humility, some might say, has not always been his strongest suit.
And the alleged rumble in the tunnel was a distraction from how poorly United performed in the derby.
I look at the spine of Mourinho’s team last Sunday: Where was the creativity?
Paul Pogba’s suspension was clearly a massive blow, but Victor Lindelof and Chris Smalling don’t bring it out from the back like Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Matic and Ander Herrera were outgunned in midfield and Romelu Lukaku, not for the first time, was ineffective against the big guns.
Lukaku will prove worth his weight in goals, but if he is going to silence the doubters he can’t just score against the likes of Bournemouth and Swansea but come up short when City or Chelsea are in town.
I wouldn’t call him a flat-track bully, but the best players find a way to deliver in the big games.
The title race is over. I called it last month, and nobody is going to catch City.
But as good as Pep Guardiola’s side were at Old Trafford, and 49 points from a possible 51 is absolutely phenomenal, I have to ask the question.
Would the outcome have been any different if Mourinho had not been so cautious, and the shackles were off?
For Manchester United to play for 45 minutes at home, and barely get in the opposition’s box – let alone shoot – is not what the club stands for. At times it was men against boys in the derby.
City are on course to win the title with 100 points and 100 goals, and the challenge facing Mourinho now is to make sure the gap does not become embarrassing.
Success, for United, means putting trophies on the table. The fans will only tolerate occasional negativity if it means laps of honour around Old Trafford with silverware.
All is not lost: They could still make serious headway in the Champions League, they have a League Cup quarter-final at Bristol City next week and the FA Cup third round draw gave them a home tie.
But the nightmare scenario for Mourinho is that City are still in all those competitions, too, and sooner or later their paths may cross again.