Not good Enough From Manchester United
Manchester United have started to finally find their feet this season after consecutive wins against Burnley and Crystal Palace. However, two wins on the trot is not exactly an accurate portrayal of how the Red Devils have kicked off their campaign.
They currently have a 50% loss record and -3 goal difference in the league, two clean sheets in eight, and a loss to Bayern on the clubs return to the Champions League. .
The Red Devils have only played six league matches but are already nine points behind leaders City and six points off of the top four. I know it is still early days, but this should be concerning for all United fans.
Every journalist and armchair pundit alike has their own opinion as why United are not fulfilling their potential. Personally, I think there is a little bit of truth in most opinions. Here are some are the arguments I feel carry the most weight.
Preseason Was Too Cluttered
Manchester United began there preparations for the 23/24 season with a tour that included eight preseason matches in 26 days. Averaging a match every 3 days. While some of those matches were on back to back days.
Adding to the preseason difficulties was the fact that matches were played in four different countries across two different continents. Covering that many miles to play that many games in so few days was a blatant cash grab by the club.
On several occasions ten Hag was forced to manage one match, then fly more than a thousand miles over night to manager another match the following day. How is a manager meant to spend any time developing a squad when he has to jet across continents to coach too many matches in too short a space of time?
Manchester United’s preseason did nothing to get this team ready for the season. All it did was put more money in the Glazer’s pockets and distract fans from the clubs failures in the transfer market.
Manchester United Lack Depth
Last season we saw what happens to this team when we lose players like Bruno, Casemiro, Eriksen, Martinez or Varane. We have also seen what happens when this team lacks a focal striker.
What happens if Hojlund goes down injured? Rashford was our top goal scorer last season, what happens if he goes down with injury?
Injuries aside, with a full strength squad, our bench isn’t exactly going to strike fear into our rivals.
Honestly, are we as United fans meant to be encouraged when we are down two goals inside of 20 minutes against Manchester City, looking to bench and we see Scott McTominay, Harry Maguire, Donny Van de Beek, Anthony Martial and several youth academy prospects?…What about that bench could possibly intimidate our rivals?
Without players like Garnacho and Hannibal, United’s bench almost always makes the team worse.
Further depth issues will arise when Onana is going to be gone for six weeks over the winter for the African Cup of Nations. Are we meant to believe that Bayindir is good enough to step up for ten matches?…
Manchester United Accumulating Fitness Issues
At the time of writing this United’s long term injuries include, Luke Shaw, Tyrell Malacia, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Amad, and Kobbie Mainoo,
Donny Van de Beek, Garnacho, Rafael Varane, Soyfan Amrabat, Mason Mount, Anthony Martial and Harry Maguire have all been out injured much of the early season, and need game time to find fitness.
Scott McTominay, Sergio Reguilon and Victor Lindelof have all briefly suffered an undisclosed illness at one point or another since the season started.
While Antony and Jadon Sancho are unavailable for personal and disciplinary issues respectively.
That is a total of SIXTEEN! I say again SIXTEEN! first team players that that have been either unavailable, injured, or returning from injury or illness since the the season began.
There isn’t a single top flight team that can cope with this many absent or unfit players and still look like they can win. Pep Guardiola was in his press conference just the other day claiming that the five first team injures City have could prove to be catastrophic. Apologies for my language, but fuck you Pep, fuck you!
Manchester United have Too Many Off Field Distractions
Mason Greenwood and Antony. Need I say more. Given the sensitivity of the accusations that both players are subject to I don’t feel it is respectful to the alleged victims or either player to go into details. Needless to say that both players’ off field issues have left them unavailable to United.
Irrespective of the degree of truth behind such accusations, legal indictments like this seldom manifest from nothingness or petty disputes. And while the public are not privileged to the whole truth, the mere suggestion of a player engaging in abusive and illicit behavior is a disgrace to women’s rights, an insult to the fans, a negative influence on the club.
I personally would not be disappointed to never see either player in red ever again.
Then there is the Jadon Sancho issue. I have previously posted on this blog my thoughts on Sancho’s insubordination. So I wont go into depth. Other then to say that, Sancho has been one of United’s most prized prospects, yet one of it’s greatest disappointments.
And now, he’s sees fit to mutiny when his team needs him the most. Selfish does not begin to describe in one word how I feel about Sancho.
All three players represent, a distraction to the team, a stigma on the fans and club, and fuel for a media that already has a bias against United.
Manchester United are Adapting to New Signings
The theory that United are still learning to play with their newest recruits holds a lot of merit.
Replacing such an ever present leader in the team as David De Gea requires time. Time to the get the players on board with the change. And time for the the team to get used to a keeper, who’s mere presence instigates an entirely different way of playing football. Onana is unlike any keeper United have ever played with. I wouldn’t be surprised if it took most of the season for the team to get used to his influence.
The other new addition to the squad that will take a lot of getting used to is Rasmus Hojlund. United have not played with a player like Hojlund since Zlatan and Lukaku were features at the club. The team’s existing forwards will need to learn to read his runs and anticipate his presence in the box.
These two players spell the greatest evolution in United’s tactics this season. Expecting the team to immediately adapt to such changes is unfair, especially in the face of how many players are currently unavailable and unfit for United.
Manchester United’s Players Are Not Good Enough
Contrary to getting used to new players at United, is the team compensating for players that are not good enough. Dalot, Lindelof, Maguire, Van de Beek, McTominay, Malacia, Martial, Sancho and Antony have all been called out by fans and the media.
Some punditry goes as far as to claim that age is beginning to get the better of players like Varane, Eriksen, and Casemiro. Or that Rashford is too inconsistent. Lately a lot of pundits want to call out Bruno for whinging too much to be captain. Wan-Bissaka has also become a regular target for his underdeveloped attacking abilities.
It seems like every pundit and United fan alike has at least one player they love to complain about. And the truth is, there are definitely a few players that are not the caliber that is expected at a club like United.
However, I think it is fair to say that no team ever has a perfect squad. One of the strengths of Sir Alex Ferguson and his contemporaries is always getting the best from players irrespective of their Topps card stats. Fergie won trophies with players like Darron Gibson, Tom Cleverly and Adnan Januzaj as mainstays.
Should we really expect less from Erik ten Hag? Especially when most Manchester Untied fans would say we have one of the best starting elevens in the league, when our squad is fully fit.
Manchester United are Antiquated
This leads me to what I feel is the most conclusive argument against the club. United lack the infrastructure to produce the best squad possible.
More specifically, there is a lot of validity through published evidence, to the following issues:
- United lack state-of-the-art training facilities, and a comprehensive sports medicine team.
- The club lacks a developed sports sciences, analysis and biomechanics team monitoring performances on and off the field.
- The scouting team lacks a global reach.
- United’s medical staff and facilities are average at best.
- The club didn’t have a director of football for almost a decade.
- Old Trafford is in such a dilapidated state that it diminishes the fan experience which diminishes fan support during matches.
After Cristiano Ronaldo’s scathing review of Manchester United’s facilities and staff in his caviling interview with Pierce Morgan, a lot of information began to come out about the club’s lack of investment into their crumbling infrastructure.
Information that was widely available to fans and the media, but few paid attention to until the interview. Despite being wholly insulted by his petulance, I had hoped that his words would have inspired, or at least instigated, some change.
Unfortunately, since Ronaldo’s tell-all, the most notable turnaround has been United’s recruitment of Arsenal’s former head of medical operations. A change that has yet to bear any fruit.
Erik ten Hag is the Wrong Man for the Job
I find the claim that Erik ten Hag is not the man for United a little disconcerting. I am getting really fed up with fans that feel so entitled to watch their team succeed that they think it is ok to change out a manager the second things get tough.
For fuck sake Sir Alex took three seasons to win his first trophy and six seasons to win his first Premier League at Old Trafford. Imagine if United had sacked him before he finished his second season. And I could argue all day, that none of United’s recent managers was given a fair crack at the whip.
This contemporary habit of hanging managers out to dry after a few poor results is getting really old. Especially when that habit is almost solely motivated by the greed of the owners.
In the last ten years United have had five full time managers and three interim managers. Yet, what do we have to show for such a cursory tactic? Not nearly enough if you ask me.
Success, with trust, is built over time. To expect ten Hag to have created a utopian United after 18 months is beyond wishful. It is entitled. It is unfair to the manager. And it raises false expectations amongst fans.
A manager of Erik ten Hag’s caliber deserves more benefit of the doubt then that.
Manchester United Have Lacked a Director of Football
When so much goes wrong all at the same time, it is almost always the fault of the person/s in charge of daily operations. Bad decision making at the top of the business pyramid has exactly this kind of catastrophic trickle down effect.
After a decade of the Glazers deciding United didnt need a DOF, it is a surprise we are where we are?
In that decade the Glazers, Ed Woodward and Richard Arnold wasted hundreds of millions of dollars. They let the stadium and training facilities fall far behind the times. They pushed commercial signings on managers that ultimately got them sacked and split the dressing room. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
United eventually hired John Murtaugh as our first Footballing Director. But this is a man who’s professional background is mainly as a sports scientist. He has absolutely no experience to prepare him to be a DOF other than he apparently impressed Ed Woodward.
How are we meant to trust a DOF that appears nothing more than another lackey of the current regime?
The Glazers are the Only Real Problem at United
Here is the part where I become absolutely livid with pundits like Paul Merson. Merson claimed recently that United fans need to stop blaming the owners. And that we need to start looking harder at the the efforts put in by players and the manager.
He further claims that the owners have invested more than a billion dollars in players over the last ten years. They have given every United manager what they wanted. It shouldn’t be on the Glazers when each manager is given what they want yet still fail to meet standards.
I find this a petty argument made by a petty, United hating, pundit who is paid to deliberately be a shock jock. Meanwhile his stature as a pundit on a popular show means his words become a drop of honey in the ears of fans looking for a scapegoat.
It is wonderfully manipulative to claim the Glazers have given each manager everything they want. But, it quite simply isn’t true. I don’t have the time in this article to point out every instance a United manager was short changed in the transfer market. Or the fact that players like Pogba, Di Maria, Sanchez, and Ronaldo were all commercial signings, forced by the Glazers, that the manager didn’t request.
To claim that each manager was given what they wanted is an insult to the intelligence of all United fans.
A Change in Leadership is Necessary at the Club
The one argument I cant get past is that no matter what industry or company anyone wants to use as an example, when things have consistently been going wrong for this amount of time, the only people to blame are the owners. The buck stops with them.
The problem is, and always has been the Glazers. They are the puppet masters in this whole argument. As such they are the only ones that deserve our scrutiny. Every other argument is a mere consequence of their leadership.
Could the manager and players own more responsibility? Yes, and I think that is the bedrock of Merson’s point. But it is such a superficial argument when there is this much literal and metaphorical rot at Old Trafford
I could also argue that the Glazers and Richard Arnold set up United’s preseason. The Glazers and Arnold are in charge of appointing the heads of the medical and sports sciences department. They are in charge of finding a DOF. They sign off on multi million dollar transfers and fail to shift deadwood. And they are the ones who have insisted on commercial signings that have only made things worse within the squad.
And worst of all they are the ones saddled with the least accountability.
Glory, Glory Man United.
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