TEAM FOCUS: MANCHESTER UNITED

As the international break is upon us, it is perhaps a good time to reflect on the games played this season and look forward to what is yet to come in the exciting game of football. This time the focus will be on Manchester United.

The glory days are over in MUFC

Manchester United used to be the most valuable football club in the world. According to Brand Finance Football’s annual report released on the 16th of May this year however, Manchester United is now behind Real Madrid. They are still one of the biggest brands on the planet, but the Manchester United era of dominance over the past two to three decades in English football has now been reduced to a fight for the 3rd and 4th spot in the premier league table or perhaps a Europa League spot where they finished last season. 

Second fiddle is not something United fans are used to seeing. A team that was filled with serial winners, a team that the other clubs in the premier league were afraid of facing, a team that used to fight and believe till the last minute of stoppage time is played is now a mere shadow of their old self. Manchester United once defeated Arsenal 8-2, but they succumbed to ten defeats in the 2018-19 season. These defeats were not only against the best teams like Manchester City, but also against teams like Wolves, and towards the back end of the season against the Welsh club Cardiff City which got relegated the same season. Anything can happen in the premier league, which is arguably the most competitive and entertaining league in Europe and any team can defeat Man Utd. What is the reason behind these defeats and inconsistency, why has that fear factor gone, what is going wrong at Manchester United and how the glory days could come back to Old Trafford is what we will be having a look at. The focus will be on this season’s prospects.

Looking ahead to the 2019-20 Season and beyond

If a pre-season is an indicator of the level of play, fitness, form and a good precursor of what is going to come in the subsequent season, than it was surely a good one for Manchester United! Not only did the star players like Rashford, Martial, Pogba perform but you could also see good games from the young and upcoming likes of Mason Greenwood, Angel Gomes and Tahith Chong. The results were very good as well! 

With Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at the helm, appointed last season on a permanent basis after what the club deemed to be a successful time as caretaker manager, there were a series of changes made in the squad. Ole mentioned that the club has a clear plan going forward and perhaps the first step began with new players being pursued and purchased while some of their existing players were sold as they were surplus to requirements. 

            United signed Daniel James, the promising 21 year-old winger from Swansea City in the EFL Championship for a reported fee of £15 million. A positive signing which surely brought joy to the United fans. Keeping clean sheets was something we did not see from United last season as they managed only 7 clean sheets, far behind the Champions League winners last season Liverpool who managed 21 clean sheets and the premier league champions, Man City who managed 20 clean sheets. This was exactly the area they needed to improve and Man Utd signed the English right back from Crystal Palace, Aaron Wan-Bissaka for a fee being around £45 million with an additional £5 million due in bonuses. He was one of the best players in the Palace team alongside Zaha and ended a great 2018-19 season with a 129 tackles, the third highest in the premier league only behind Wilfred Ndidi and Idrissa Gueye. 

             Another area that needed strengthening in the defence was the role of a powerful, towering centre back who could potentially be a leader at the back and United signed Harry Maguire from the Foxes for a fee to be around £80 million for exactly that. The plan is perhaps to have the centre-back pairing of Maguire and Lindelof or Bailly if he is fit, Luke Shaw at left back and AWB on the right in front of the Man Utd captain in the absence of Young in the playing 11, De Gea.

            The departures included the energetic midfielder Ander Herrera who left to PSG, the man up front Romelu Lukaku, who was sold to Inter Milan, Alexis Sanchez who was sent on loan to Inter Milan, the defender Smalling, sent on loan to Roma and Darmian who left to join the Italian club Parma.

          James has become the star performer up front for United in the premier league with 3 goals this season. AWB has been good defensively with his spider like feet popping out with 28 tackles, the highest tally of any player in the premier league this season. Pogba has been the creative force in the side and Maguire seems to be comfortable alongside Lindelof at Centre back. 

         However, there seems to be a void in the team after the departure of the likes of Sanchez and Lukaku up front and after Herrera left in the midfield. The club clearly feels this is the right way going forward, giving time to a young squad with the lowest average age in the premier league to develop. United hope to see Rashford, Martial and James taking the responsibility up front with the likes of Greenwood, Gomes and Chong as backup options when required. Martial’s recent injury means that Greenwood will perhaps have more minutes on the pitch. 

            The midfield seems to be heavily dependent on Pogba as the main man alongside Scott McTominay with Matic and Fred as alternative options. United have to cope with a hectic Christmas schedule in the premier league, along with the cup competitions and this time they need to travel around Europe on Thursday nights in the Europa League and it will be a challenge to keep their key players fit. Pogba is the latest player to get injured and will not be travelling with the French squad to take part in the international friendlies which is not good considering that he is one of the key players for United this season. One can only hope that the injury is not too serious though and the international break gives Paul time to recover.

           In the possibility that he does not recover in time, United will have to make the most of the midfield of Matic and McTominay or hope that Fred can step up. Football pundits have criticized this United squad for not giving their hundred percent in every game and perhaps they are just not an aggressive team that presses the opposition and does not give them space to breathe. Are there any leaders in the side? Young is the captain but he is not first choice. De Gea is currently the captain of Manchester United without Young but is he the one who leads the team? Although Pogba spoke in public about his future and his interest to leave the club, he seems to be one of the leaders in the team trying to push and drive the team forward. The team still seems to lack strong leaders who gave their 100 % and more for club. The players of yesteryear like Roy Keane, Peter Schmeichel were known for making all the players around them step up their game. That is perhaps the difference between the players around the famous Class of 92 team and the players alongside this young United team.

Possible solutions

What are the solutions you ask? Mata is one of the players who has supported and stood by United during these tumultuous times and took up a new contract in the summer to remain in the club. Juan wants to play and help the young players develop and he is definitely an example of a role model as a football player on and off the pitch. While the jury is divided and some people have the opinion that he just does not have the legs anymore, I feel that he has a lot more to offer as an attacking midfielder. He maybe the temporary short term solution but he distributes the ball well, helps in keeping the possession, plays good little give and go's with the likes of James for example against Southampton and finds those spaces that the other players just do not. He is an intelligent footballer who takes wonderful free kicks and maybe he should get more minutes and more opportunities. Playing someone like him with experience in front of the midfield duo of Pogba and a 22 year old McTominay could be one short term solution before they pursue and develop other players in the future.

             United definitely need to improve the way they keep possession of the ball. The passing accuracy is not ideal, nowhere near the best clubs. Playing out from the back with the new goal kick rules has been difficult for United. There were many instances where United lost the ball due to one misplaced pass and the opposition would capitalize on the mistake and score in a subsequent set piece or in the build-up play immediately after this mistake. The best teams like Man City keep the ball much better, pass more briskly and score more goals. They simply do not allow the opposition to get back in the game and even if that happens they continue to dominate and go for the second, third and fourth goal to finish the game. The extra goal cushion allows them to dictate the way the game is going to go. Continuous pressing, not giving the other team any room, any respite is something that Liverpool have become masters at doing. They may not have world class players in the midfield but under Klopp, they have a terrific system of attacking football along with world class forwards. Maybe if another midfield pair could be developed who can keep the ball well and dictate the tempo of the game like Scholes and Carrick did back in their day, it will help. It is not easy to develop world class players and it takes time, but United need to try! 

             Pundits have been wondering why a club of the stature of Manchester United does not have a sporting director to work alongside the manager, Ole. Perhaps the solution could be the appointment of a sporting director and a change in the scouting system to spot and bring young talent from across the globe to the club instead of spending big and breaking the transfer record to sign a player. Ajax has been successful in the past few years under the leadership of the United legend Edwin Van Der Sar in developing young players and making them world class and maybe that is something Manchester United need to do with their young squad. 

             While the rebuild takes place in the coming three to four transfer windows, some good signings will definitely help though. Look at Juventus as an example. They signed wonderful players like Ramsey, Can, Khedira at the right moment for a bargain which happened in the same window in which they made huge transfers like De Ligt from Ajax or Ronaldo from Real Madrid. Now the Juventus squad has so much depth that they can play a separate team for each competition! Surely there must be room in Manchester United to add more players into the squad now after the summer departures. Solskjaer made good signings in the summer which however is a step in the right direction. James, Maguire and AWB have all played well for United and have definitely improved the team. This is a positive sign that the recruitment has been good this year, even if a lot of money was spent and the United fans should hope for more of the same in the next transfer windows.

            Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is already under pressure now like every manager in the PL with the inconsistent results but having him at the helm for the long term may be the solution. Maybe Ole can rekindle that spark during that wonderful unbeaten run that United went on after his appointment as an interim caretaker manager. That unbeaten run last season was perhaps among United best moments or best run of good results after Sir Alex retired. It was weird to see the form dip as soon as Solksjaer’s role as caretaker manager ended and as his time as a permanent manager began but perhaps that’s football! Unbelievably good times do not last forever! Well, all United fans can do right now is support and place their trust in Ole! Even the legendary managers, Sir Matt Busby and Sir Alex Ferguson could not win immediately and they took quite a long period of time in the club to win their first English league title! Despite the fact that modern football is different from what it used to be and the results oriented business is not as patient with managers, we need to give Solskjaer more time and hope to reap the rewards in the future. What are your thoughts about the current United squad and what do you think should be done to get more victories? Let me know in the comments below.