Jose Mourinho's evolving Manchester United side visit Basel with Champions League demons to exorcise

Cast your mind back, if you can, to December of 2011. Specifically, the first Wednesday of the month at roughly 9.30pm. It’s a night that’s likely to draw a dismissive head-shake or a knowing roll of the eyes from those Manchester United fans that remember it well. For this was the evening that, just seven months after reaching the Champions League final at Wembley, Sir Alex Ferguson’s men were ignominiously dumped out of the competition’s group stages by FC Basel.

It was a typically raucous European night at the St Jakob-Park, with 36,894 fans in attendance to watch the hosts beat a side that, despite their achievements that same year, were very much caught in transition. Both Gary Neville and Paul Scholes had retired earlier that year - though one would later briefly return – while the likes of Phil Jones and Danny Welbeck were still cutting their teeth at Old Trafford. As such, it fell to Alexander Frei to down this liminal team with a late header and see Basel through to the last 16 for the first time since 2002.

Ferguson, as expected, was blunt and to the point as he reflected upon defeat, conceding that his side would now have to pay the “penalty” of Europa League football for their shortcomings. "The opportunities we had we didn't take and that was really the story of the game,” he said. “It is not the best news but that is our penalty for not qualifying.”

Fast forward almost six years and United, under the guidance of Jose Mourinho, return to Switzerland with a point to prove and demons to exorcise. Unlike their last visit, though, qualification to the knockout stages is all but guaranteed. Mourinho’s men need simply a point to progress – a result that seems likely given their swashbuckling victory over Newcastle United at the weekend.

As such, for the first time in four years United are poised to return to that prestigious old boys’ club which, for so many years, boasted Old Trafford’s finest among its high-flying members. On the brink of re-admittance to Europe’s elite 16, the journey has been no easy feat though. And it’s taken Mourinho, a European specialist, to bring them this far. Via the Europa League, and a soft-looking Champions League group, United have soldiered on, carrying out the basics, deploying their manager’s distinctive style to close in on the promised land.

But when the final whistle sounds tonight to surely confirm United’s victory, and Mourinho drops his usual opaque sound bites, it’s worth noting that this is a side that, much like Ferguson’s in 2011, is still evolving. For all the talk of resurgence, there’s a sense that something is still not quite right.

Four years on from Ferguson’s departure and the scaffolding at Old Trafford remains in place – despite what the storming nature of some of United’s victories this season would suggest. The recent demolition of Newcastle, the ease with which they dispatched of West Ham, Crystal Palace, Everton, and so on: these results distort the realities of the matter, namely that United are still not good enough to challenge for the titles they so desperately crave.

The frustrating stalemate at Anfield suggests as much. Instead of going for the jugular, Mourinho’s tentative and colourless approach conveyed the extent to which United have lost their ruthless streak. Such an outlook would have been anathema to the Ferguson of old, for whom this fixture meant everything. Defeat at Huddersfield, and the fractious training-ground response it elicited from Mourinho, as well as the 1-0 loss at Chelsea, suggests United are still off the mark - as does the unconvincing nature of some of their European wins. How far they can progress on the back of such performances remains to be seen.

Which brings us back to this evening’s clash in northern Switzerland. Even if victory is more or less assured, it’s a fixture over which the unsettling spectre of history hangs. And herein lies the contradiction. It may be a game in which United can highlight their recent progress in qualifying for the Champions League’s last 16, but, as was the case almost six years ago, it’s a historic reminder that clubs must first learn to walk before they can run.

For what it’s worth, United find themselves in between the two; a sort of fast-walk, slow-jog, the kind that would see Mourinho and his men place a respectable third at the Race Walking World Championships. For make no mistake, this team is not the finished article. Mourinho has spoken repeatedly of improving, of moving forward as he sets about returning United to the top, having equally made it clear he holds no preference for how he does so. “There are lots of poets in football, but poets don’t win many titles,” he said after this year’s final in Stockholm.

The real indication of where exactly United are at, then, will surely come in the latter stages of this competition, when they take on the might of Bayern Munich, Barcelona or Paris Saint-Germain. Only then can the side’s progress be properly quantified. Until then, United must content themselves with securing qualification this evening in Basel. But it’s worth keeping in mind the lessons of the past. Otherwise, perhaps not tonight but somewhere down the road, Mourinho and his men will find themselves come undone as Ferguson’s side did all those years ago.

Predicted team: David de Gea; Matteo Darmian, Chris Smalling, Victor Lindelof, Daley Blind; Marouane Fellaini, Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard, Juan Mata, Anthony Martial; Romelu Lukaku.